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dbaldeh
USA
934 Posts |
 Posted - 23 Feb 2008 : 01:50:41
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We are still talking the same "old talk with the same old people and expect different results" Obama.
It is beyond my imagination to continue to talk about the same old problems offering the same old solutions that has proven to fail time and again. The talk is all about a few people who have not proven to be superior to the rest of the Gambian population.
The political mess was created by and around a few people and these includes Halifa, Darboe, OJ, WAA of all people and Hamat. We just can't seems to imagine political life in Gambia without these folks can we? What if all these people were to disappear in our political scene, what is our plan B?
Do we realize the impact and disasterous mentality of the old Jawara slogan which translates "Can't imagine Gambia without baba Jawara".
If we claim to be the intellectual elites we portray ourselves in stylistic writing and jargons, why can't we come up with our own solutions without looking to these people?
Why can't we mobilize our own resources and rally our intellectual ideas around each other and forget about an old problem without solutions?
You know I am a proud Gambian, but sometimes what I see in our circles and debates is absolutely degrading or should I say unprogressive and doomed.
Why do we continue to pull each other down and portray ourselves as the best operating in a selfish individual way hoping to be more successful than everyone else?
Who really are we as people? What do we stand for as people? What is our national pride? When we are able to answer these questions, then we can think about why our people lost interest in our politics.
Am around and stay tuned...
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Baldeh,
"Be the change you want to see in the world" Ghandi
Visit http://www.gainako.com for your daily news and politics |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2008 : 01:57:32
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Mawdo Ajaarama.
You have been absent for a while. Did you drink the magic water? |
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.” |
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dbaldeh
USA
934 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2008 : 04:23:01
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Mawdo Ko Jamtan deh!! (elder, all is well).
You are right, I have been silence working on other projects and taking care of the family. You know it is the flu season where in America it is a really rough time for families. Am sure in Europe too, but may be they are closer to the Dr. who cures Aides.
Anyway, am back with force and ready for new challenges and ideas.
Thanks to all of you and Ebou4th in particular for introducing a great topic. I hope we come out of it winning with new ideas.
count me in again.... |
Baldeh,
"Be the change you want to see in the world" Ghandi
Visit http://www.gainako.com for your daily news and politics |
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dbaldeh
USA
934 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2008 : 04:59:13
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Now, to attempt to answer Ebou4th's question of "Why did the people loose faith" It will take time to put everything into perspective. However, a few things stand out for me.
1. With the hostile political environment in the Gambia, folks will only take the chance and openly defy conventional wisdon when there is reasonable assurance that the status quo is likely to be eliminated. Folks in Gambia live day by day and from hand and feet to mouth. Therefore at the end of the NADD debacle with their common fears of politicians doing what they do best betray the folks, there was no more hope left for them to hang on. They had no choice but to choose the status quo. To be honest the devil you know is probaby better than the one you don't know and folks know that very well.
2. As if people were surprised, what they expected from the politicians was exactly what happened. They selfishly refuse to give the union a chance to survive all for selfish interest.
3. That political coalition and the mini that came about after all failed woofully and honestly, they should all go or at the very least accept responsibility for failing and silently retreat from the public eye.
This notion of this leader or that leader is selected by the people and therefore not going to leave is typical African power greed. Many of a time, if you are a humble leader, you know people select you to bring change and success, to make their lives better. Now, if you fail to do that not once, not twice, or three times, then one should be humble enough to call it a quit. Hanging in there for no other reason is to betray the trust of the people.
4. We all saw the energy and enthusiasm generated by the folks leading to the formation of NADD. One can compare that to the kind of electricity and fire you see in the Obama campaign. Even the ordinary folks who never spoke of politics are going out to see the politicians because of the hope generated.
It was a similar hope that the Gambian people need to get rid of Jammeh. Without that hope and leadership zeal, they will always think about what to eat first be4 thinking about politics, and I can't blame them.
Finally, the notion that a replica of what worked in Senegal will automatically work in the Gambia is a false promise and blanket optimism.
The Senegalese political system is far more sophisticated than ours. Their political institutions are far more established and formidable than ours. What we had was a Euphoria of political democracy without the institutions and education in place.
Besides, Addoulie Wade openly promise to share power with his small parties. He recognize them and respected their position regardless of how small they are. He did not just say lets do a party lead coalition. He put together a plan and ask for the backing of everyone.
UDP on the other hand should have done the samething. I have always maintained that being the bigger party is not enough to lead. You have to lead with concrete plans and willingness to reach out and recognize the talent and resources other folks can bring. However, if you are just focus on the leadership, this is exactly what happens. People don't trust you and therefore will not rally behind you.
Leadership is more than calling for unity, it is about leading with example and willing to sacrifice for all and sundry. Gambians did not get that from the majority party. There is still an opportunity for a new UDP leadership to step up and lead the rest of the bunch. My take for now and you know my position is always clear.
Stay tune for concrete proposals for the way forward without the failed leaders.... |
Baldeh,
"Be the change you want to see in the world" Ghandi
Visit http://www.gainako.com for your daily news and politics |
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kobo
United Kingdom
7765 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2008 : 20:10:58
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Welcome back dBaldeh and thanks for the CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND SOUND PROPOSALS! You always live up-to expectations as I intimate earlier that we are expecting your participation. There is no more time for any BLAME GAME & WAR OF WORDS POLITICS. Its history that opposition parties WOEFULLY FAILED BEYOND EXPECTATIONS due to a whole range of factors. However we owe them a big gratitude for what they INVESTED OR SACRIFICES vested to establish opposition parties to SAVE GAMBIAN DEMOCRACY & POLITICS!
NEW STRATEGIC/TACTICAL ACTION PLANS and the WAY FORWARD for DYNAMIC POLITICAL CHANGE can only be formulated if we apply our brains, resources and collective efforts together.
Hope that NEW RESOLUTIONS can be VOLUNTARILY drawn or compiled for the opposition parties to CONSIDER!
HOPE FOR CHANGE! 
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Edited by - kobo on 23 Feb 2008 20:16:21 |
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dbaldeh
USA
934 Posts |
Posted - 25 Feb 2008 : 04:36:20
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Thanks Kobo, I miss some real kobo from jolof. This is one thing I will never forgive Jammeh for depriving me from enjoying my kobo and cherloo... your name reminds me of these rich foods.
Anyway, so much humor. I definitely agree with you that although the politicians on the ground fail to meet our expectations, we still honor and commend them for keeping the seeds of democracy alive in the Gambia. Democracy as you will agree that it cannot be planted from the outside. It has to be nurtured and breed within regardless of how terrible the system may look like.
So I pay special tribute to those politicians regardless of my dissappointments with their leadership skills.
It is an honest truth that if they had done the samething many of us did abandon our homeland in search of better lives, then things would have gotton worst. So I celebrate Halifa, Darboe, Bah, OJ, Waa and all the other folks behind the scenes for keeping the dreams hopeless but alive. They may never be able to solve our political problems, but they certainly have done enough for us to learn from their missteps and move forward.
This is where I disagree with my learned friend Daffeh. I understand that despite our disagreements in the past, we can still strive to work together. Despite our criticism of our opponents, we still have a country to share and to unite around.
So to sit down and say those people behind UGAMA are not fit to unite us is a lack of understanding of why there is political democracy in the first place. If we were all to support the same political party and ideology, then that will defeat the very purpose of democracy. It will instead be a dictatorship or monarchy where no other ideas are allowed or entertained.
So my friends, it is a fundamental pillar of democracy for us to support different parties and different candidates of our choosing. Supporting Darboe or UDP does not make anyone less patriotic than supporting Halifa. At the end of the day our goals for our nation should be synonimous.
It is our programs for our nation that should make us stand out not our tribe, skin color or political affiliation. We certainly have a lot of learning to do. God help us in the process....
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Baldeh,
"Be the change you want to see in the world" Ghandi
Visit http://www.gainako.com for your daily news and politics |
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kaanibaa
United Kingdom
1169 Posts |
Posted - 25 Feb 2008 : 17:36:44
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| The other option is to depend on yallah bahna.The miracle solution of our problems that underlie this doctrine .Just a thought. |
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dbaldeh
USA
934 Posts |
Posted - 29 Feb 2008 : 23:47:35
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Rightly so Kaanibaa, our people feed off of Yalla Bannah... God is great. Sometimes this believe undermines the very purpose our creator gave us brains and minds to utilize to make best use of this world.
I must admit, I am not fundamentally religious, but just a moderate one, but I believe we have brains and minds so we can make best use of them to live a decent life in this world. We have hands and legs so we can use them to our advantage, so are our eyes etc. etc.
When a people rely on "God is great" which is an undesputable fact, it is a sign of ignorance and lack of understanding of the very purpose of our existence as human beings. Yes, he is great, but he has given us every incentive to utilize our minds for the best of humanity.
It is a lost of hope and lack of self worth that leads people to sit lazily and hope they will prosper under someone else's sweat. Monkey works and baboom eats is a dangerous stigma in our society.
When I visited home over a year ago, I could not help it but got angry and sometimes amazed as to how hopeless and lazy people have become.
How in the world does a whole society or people expect God to come down and rescue them? How can people be so hopeless, when they are healthy and able?
How does farmers expect to survive without farming and producing their own food? What if there is no one to supply food? How can you survive?
How in the world do people expect to have several children and yet still expect someone gracious, family or not, to continue to feed them, educate them, shelter them, and cloth them at the sametime?
I looked at several people, with so much potentials and yet still they look so neglecting by no one but themselves. The more I think about it, the more I became angry and surprised at how far people can be so irresponsible.
May be I was being naived, because I was lucky to be educated etc. but I said to myself may be not, if I had been a farmer? I would have farm harder to produce for myself and my family. If I were a fisher man? I would fish harder to get enough fish to live a better life. If I had lived in a mud house? I would have built a decent mud house and make it look livable. If I had children? I would have left no stone unturned to provide the best for my kids. This is how I keep thinking, and am sure many people think that way too.
There is just too much at stake to continue to blame colonialism, slavery, political failures, and what not on our failures. The Western world is better economically and financially, because they don't only work hard but they use their brains and minds to continue to improve and build on where others left off. They continue to search for answers and make things better than they found it.
I am not implying that our people don't work hard. Certainly spending the whole day on a farm is a very hard work. However, doing the samething everyday, year after year without improvement is enough to teach us a lesson. The small hoe for subsistence farming is not working, sitting at the bantaba chatting about other peoples' problems does not do us any good. Depending on western aid is not getting us far either.
So folks, am sorry, but our people don't maximize the use of their brains and minds to get ahead. They rely on a relative in the West to send them a stipend, on a government that don't know the source of its power, that only cares about its inner elites. This is what is ruining our society, and if we fail to think hard, we will continue to be victims of our own making.
We all have a moral responsibility to leave this world better than the way we found it. God has given us what we need to prosper and that is our brains and minds.
What say you??? |
Baldeh,
"Be the change you want to see in the world" Ghandi
Visit http://www.gainako.com for your daily news and politics |
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kobo
United Kingdom
7765 Posts |
Posted - 01 Mar 2008 : 19:52:55
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Thanks dBaldeh. Hope that new generation of politicians from those ELITES RANTING ALL TIME ON-LINE will MOBILZE NEW LEADERSHIP & VISIONS TO FORWARD THE GAMBIA OUR HOMELAND!
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Moe
USA
2326 Posts |
Posted - 02 Mar 2008 : 07:27:12
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| You are on fire Mr Baldeh, Makes you wonder why Gambians have to be ruled with an iron fist?. I promise you if they don't ban Bantaba's and attaya in Gambia, everyone is bound to die of diabetes or hunger since they rather hangout and chat from dusk till dawn blaming jammeh for their miserable lives. It's called killing time as they like to call it. I used to wonder why the continent was so poor but after growing up i know exactly why nothing is up to par..........................Peace |
I am Jebel Musa better yet rock of Gibraltar,either or,still a stronghold and a Pillar commanding direction
The GPU wants Me Hunted Down for what I don't know ..... |
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kaanibaa
United Kingdom
1169 Posts |
Posted - 03 Mar 2008 : 19:02:33
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| Reminds me of the verbal fracas between a rogue marabout who threatened a wise mark ; a man he wanted to cheat by the use of bogus charms. The man firmly told the marabout that he does not believe in his charms and politely asked him to leave him alone but the marabout decided to threaten the innocent but honestly frank man by saying if he continues to taunt him he will make the sky collapse .The man in turn told him to go ahead so that all of them will perish but used such foul language unfit for public hearing. The Gambia is ours for good or bad whatever befalls it, all Gambians will be affected ,some can pretend all they can that they are fine but thats all it is, a false pretense. Again my opinion |
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dbaldeh
USA
934 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2008 : 09:54:17
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quote:
Originally posted by Moe
You are on fire Mr Baldeh, Makes you wonder why Gambians have to be ruled with an iron fist?. I promise you if they don't ban Bantaba's and attaya in Gambia, everyone is bound to die of diabetes or hunger since they rather hangout and chat from dusk till dawn blaming jammeh for their miserable lives. It's called killing time as they like to call it. I used to wonder why the continent was so poor but after growing up i know exactly why nothing is up to par..........................Peace
Moe, it is time we look in the mirror and see what we represent as people. It is open that I am no fan of Yahya Jammeh because of all the things that brought him to power and how he turns out to be in suppressing press freedom and openingly threatening his citizens.
I also think that Jammeh has his own responsibilities as a citizen that he needs to be accounted for. As a leader he has a greater responsibility than any other citizen to show good judgement and make sound policy decisions. I strongly believe he has failed in putting the country on a path to reconciliation and future economic progress for our little sweet Gambia.
Having said that, every citizen has a responsibility to see that the best interest of the nation is protected at all times and at every level. The massive failure in the Gambia right now lies on the shoulders of every citizen.
Allow me to explain a little further. You know how selfish citizens rally around a mentally weak leader and exploit his weakness to their selfish interest. This is what they did to Jawara and they continue to do it to Jammeh. These citizens are worst than Jammeh and they have no interest in the progress of our nation. They will milk as much as possible even if it means giving up their lives and integrity just as many of them have done already.
It has always been my conviction that a nation cannot be runned by one person. A people cannot be exploited unless they allow it. A citizenry cannot be corrupted unless they embrace the idea of corruption for their own selfish reasons. A President no matter who cannot institute fear and oppression on its people unless the people buy into his/her corrupted vision.
Therefore, it is a myth that Gambians at home and in the Diaspora continue to blame Jammeh whose power is driven from the very people he oppresses. Those of us who abandoned our nation and the most vulnerable in search of economic freedom, are as much to blame as those exploiting the governing vacuum that currently exist in our beloved nation.
Those who strive to get as close to Jammeh as possible for selfish gains are also paying a heavy price for putting their interest before the interest of the poor and improvish. History will have a harsh judgement on our individual roles as citizens for allowing our nation to fall through the cracks in the eyes of a generation with the greatest flow of ideas ever to exist.
I feel hostage in my own body and mind daily for living what appears to be a selfish life in any way say perform. God help our people. |
Baldeh,
"Be the change you want to see in the world" Ghandi
Visit http://www.gainako.com for your daily news and politics |
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