 | Macky Sall, Senegalese president |
June 12, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
The night-sky was blaze with irradiant fireworks, but the ephemeral pump and pageantry only masked the drudgery of life on the mean streets of Serekunda. Just two mile east of the center of Gambia’s largest metropolis, Kairaba Avenue teemed with charming Gambian girls whose angelic innocence encapsulate their preordained drift to the social and economic periphery of Gambian society. But the lavish birthday bash, which Imperial King Yahya Jammeh threw, at Coco Beach Hotel, to solemnize his egocentrism and to ironically commemorate life in slow drift toward the edge of insanity, heightened the unforgiving excoriation of Gambia’s military regime and showcased Yahya Jammeh’s irrational detachment from Gambia’s unyielding burden on daily life. But in the midst of so much mindless ecstasy and bursts of the colorful fireworks that chronicled Imperial King Yahya Jammeh’s birthday escapade, an incredible story was unfolding hundred and sixty five miles north of Banjul. And it was rightly characterized a blatant disregard for Senegal’s sovereignty; an act of criminality so daring; it had a chilling effect on the Gambian dissident community throughout Senegal. It was the week that shifted Gambia’s deadly political (Read More) | | Burama Jammeh, Detroit “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking’ – George S Patton “Where we all think alike no one thinks much” - Unknown I recognized efforts made by many out there to change the path of our nation. The efforts are not necessarily good enough if they are not equal to and/or not addressing the core problem. We should commend all the opposition organizations and their followers for maintaining the political discourse within Gambia for this long at times of severe risks. On the flip side the political activists, especially those outside the Gambia are yet to find their rightful role in the struggle. (Read More) | | Stockholm, Sweden Press Statement | June 3, 2013 Compatriots! Following the tradition of organised conferences by Diaspora Gambians in looking into our common problems and finding solutions, we the Gambians in Sweden are hereby inviting you to Stockholm to make qualitative contributions in our Dialogue from June 29th -30th.The Theme: Planning our Journey and Shaping our Destiny. This is no ordinary coming together and your presence and participation as a Gambian or friend of the Gambia is highly welcomed. (Read More) | | June 08, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
It is an integral part of Gambian history. The Raleigh Conference, that is. Not history as in things past. For Raleigh is still ongoing, still under a slow, painful birth; still emerging out of the dark shadow of Gambia’s tragic story; and still being crafted into Gambia’s political reality. One can rightly argue that Gambia is exceedingly messy both in its politics as well as its socio-economics, even laden with smoldering bitterness beneath the surface tranquility, and some Gambians are often divided by the familiar nonsensicality of their individual illusions of (Read More) | | Gambia has many problems. Thankfully, in the scheme of things, tribalism is not one of them. Gambia's mere size resulted in calling into question its viability as a sovereign state which almost cost it its political independence. Correspondingly, its economy was also small and lacked a productive base that posed serious challenge to economists as to it economic viability. By way of illustration, when Britain left in February 1965, Gambia's recurrent budget was less than two million pounds sterling with Britain contributing seven hundred and forty-five thousand pounds or 37% of the budget. (Read More) | | May 14, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
I was flabbergasted by Alieu Mboge’s very demeaning letter to Yahya Jammeh. It is similar to Bala Musa Gaye’s letter more than a year ago and Lamin Sanyang’s letter more recently last year. I was unable to react to Bala Gaye’s letter, but I am taking the liberty to respond to Alieu Mboge’s pathetic and humiliating letter to the animal; Yahya Jammeh. Below is Alieu Mboge’s letter and my response to him. But his involvement and encouragement of the idiot Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh to arrest and detain Imam Baba Leigh, went far beyond anyone's imagination. (Read More) | | May 13, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
To many people at home, it looked like another propaganda coup, one similar to many others just over the last year alone; the releases of Dr. Amadou S Janneh, Tamsir Jassey, Lawyer Moses Richard, Lawyer Lamin Mboge, the hiring of Nana Grey-Johnson and now the recycling of Fatou Camara, who was recently hire and unceremoniously fired. In some of these instances, the one (Read More) | |  | Gambia's information minister Nana Grey-Johnson recently cautioned local media to report on the country's positive development projects. He must be seeing things through the spectacles of fear or greed. (photo: IFJ) |
May 08, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
The absolute fallacy of the Gambian media and government partnership in development has a curious reconciliatory ring to it, but in Gambia as in any other country, the media does not exist to partner with any government. The Gambian media’s obligation is to citizens and not to report about a lousy road built in Banjul or anywhere else, because that is the work of government. The entire 'raison d'être' of Gambia’s “government” is to tax and provide public services to its citizens, and to think that any government has to be applauded for doing its job, has surpassed reasonableness and entered into orbit of ridiculousness. The media in Gambia as the watchdog for the people, and the only counter-force to it limitless power, has every obligation to report to the people it serves each time government fails it (Read More) | | May 04, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
The refrain is familiar. It is a cry for sympathy. And, frankly, it is downright nonsensical. We heard it again this week. It seems Nana Grey-Johnson may have suddenly found religion. After nearly two decades, this accomplished writer and journalist, who has never written anything about Gambia under Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh, suddenly and conveniently wants the embattled Gambian media to report on Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh's regime's "stellar achievements." The new protagonist in this epic battle between the opposing forces of realism and fantasy, drunken with the novelty of his new found power, is, by dint of his enthusiasm, exhibiting extraordinary shortsightedness. Nana Grey- Johnson’s galling (Read More) | |  | President Yahya Jammeh orders Gambian students out of India |
The very thought of having to be withdrawn from a University degree course for no apparent reason is devastating enough, much less for a young student thousands of miles from home and away from loved ones. To forfeit a scholarship in the process with no guarantee of it ever being restored is simply an inhumane act; a pain inflicted on reportedly 30 young Gambian students through administrative fiat thousands of miles away from the Indian sub-continent by Sheikh Professor Jammeh without a single student being given a chance to present their case. (Read More) | | April 28, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
To digress from the nastiness of politics for a moment, this focus, instead, on human nature in Gambia, is a fundamental component of the changes in our cultural landscape. This plunge into the complexity of human nature attempts to contextualize the enormous lapses in judgment to which many Gambians have become willing victims. And, this is not in reference to theoretical psychology, but on the facts of our lives that respond to our moral groundings. It is our lived experience, groomed by society’s norms, and (Read More) | |  | Sidi Sanneh, former Gambian foreign minister |
Ambassador Jackson McDonald, President Jefferson Waterman International LLC 1401 K Street, NW Suite 400 Washington, DC 20005 Dear Ambassador McDonald, Re: THE GAMBIA - State Department's Human Rights Practices for 2012 The U.S. State Department's Report on the human practices in The Gambia for 2012 ( henceforth referred to as the Report ) is out and it does not make pleasant reading. The report prepared by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor is the most scathing of any report emanating from the U.S. Government on the human condition in The Gambia. (Read More) | | London | 22 April 2013 Invitation to a Congress of UK-resident Gambians. As you are no doubt aware, as far back as 1994 with the advent of the current dictatorship, Gambians, including those in UK, have in different ways been fighting to rescue our country and her helpless people from tyranny. Yet the fact remains that the regime is not amenable to reason and continues the same dismal record of bad governance and human right abuses as highlighted by recent eyewitness accounts echoed by Radio Freedom. Against this background and following a series of introspection and evaluation sessions, a number of concerned Gambians under my chairmanship concluded that Gambian communities resident in UK stood tall amongst Gambians at home and elsewhere, firmly (Read More) | |  | Sidi Sanneh, former Gambian foreign minister |
L'ETAT C'EST MOI. I am the State. by Sidi Sanneh I praised Momodou Aki Bayo - a former GHS classmate - yesterday for his encouraging remarks about the government's desire to work with the Independent Mayor of Banjul and his City Council for the mutual benefit of city residents and the country. The statement was worthy of praise because it represented, in my view, a departure from the belligerent attitude of the Jammeh regime towards a previously elected Independent Mayor of Banjul who was subsequently chased out of town because he was not a member of the ruling APRC. In welcoming the positive statements from the Local Government Minister - I will continue to use this nomenclature despite a new directive from State House to the contrary - I deliberately omitted making reference to what I considered a startling admission by the Minister because I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that it could be an error in reporting, especially when it was not in quotes, and the primary source being the official mouthpiece of Yaya Jammeh - The Daily Observer. (Read More) | |  | Mr. Papa Faal, seated right |
By Yero Jallow, Minnesota A Week of Hell” Launched in Minnesota Author Papa Faal, a nephew of former President Sir Dawda Jawara, launched his book, "A Week of Hell” in Roseville Minnesota on April 21. In the book, Mr. Faal recalls how in July 1981, 12 people shocked the nation by attempting a coup d’état under the leadership of Kukoe Samba Sanyang. The coup failed, and about a thousand lives were reportedly lost in the meyhem. The attempted coup also left many with severe gun-shot wounds and post violence trauma which lasted many years. (Read More) | |  | President Jammeh has killed even those closest to him, including late Baba Jobe who was strangled in his sick bed at the nation's top hospital, RVTH |
April 25, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
There is growing resistance; the coalition is fortifying and the unity of purpose is coalescing around a central theme that has dominated Gambian life and politics for more than a decade and half. It is belated, yet it is coming not a moment too soon. Raleigh, North Carolina, represents more than just Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s cruel perversity; it is the prelude to Gambia’s contemporary history and the preface of a new Gambian dawn. Raleigh symbolizes a storied history written and told in our own weary voices; voices that echo the hopeless cries and the painful agony of our people. North Carolina is where the beautiful poems and the delightful narratives of sages and budding minds will go to slowly die, only to be resurrected again by the calamitous (Read More) | | April 23, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
It was a maddening reinforcement of the narrative Gambians have become all too familiar with. With one sweeping, but seemingly innocuous declaration, PURA, Gambia, declared illegal, three essential elements of the Internet, and with it, the technological that defines a century; the 21 century. Online dating, Skype and Viper, located in a mysterious corner of the world-wide web, have for the first time on the entire African continent, courted the eerie of Gambian’s Imperial King; Yahya Jammeh. The firestorm of blistering criticism from Gambians around the globe was merciless and unforgiving. The significant of the moment was lost to no one; (Read More) | |  | This murderer Must Go Now! |
April 16, 2013 | By Karamba Touray |
Inshallah, I intend to travel to Raliegh, NC, on the weekend of May 18-19 to meet my fellow citizens and friends of The Gambia. The agenda for the meeting as outlined by the facilitators is as ambitious as it is timely, a combination I believe makes it worthy of the support of anyone who believes our nation can and should be on a better path. Our difficult struggle against a cruel tyrant has been long and arduos. Some of our people have paid the ultimate price, while others continue to endure persistent injustice, economic ruin and exile. (Read More) | | April 13, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
Gambia’s court system is in overdrive. The judiciary is burdened with frivolous cases brought up by the regime and with corruption so blatantly endemic, the rights to liberty are bought and sold like commodities. Incarceration of human beings has become a mere sport as magistrates and judges play Russian roulette with people’s lives. It seems the powers that be at the judiciary and in the legal system have no clue that sending anyone to Mile 2 Prison is a potential death sentence. The administration of justice is a sham, a total failure; from the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, to the chambers of the so-called Chief Justice. Just last week, according Freedom Newspaper, an Arab who (Read More) | |  | Yahya Jammeh (r) in this undated photo with former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak |
April 10, 2013 | By Mathew K. Jallow |
It was a cool summer morning and darkness was slowly giving way to a morning full of promise. It was at that time of day when the light seemed to chase the darkness away and gradually everything around became visible again after the long dreaded night. As little morning birds chirped their melancholic melodies high up the mahogany bantaba trees, a lone woman was walking from the village well carrying water on her head. She walked towards her hut with deliberate slowness as if without a care in the world. When she was barely a few meters from her hut, she seemed to mumble something inaudible even to herself. She appeared lost in her thoughts. In reality, she was preoccupied with the life changing event that was about to happen to her son that day. It (Read More) | |
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