“Freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody”- Malcolm X By: Ousainou Mbenga The sticking point question for our struggle should be: To what end? Are we struggling and fighting for freedom for a selected few and let the rest of other political prisoners rot at Mile 2 prisons and the other unknown dungeons where the Jammeh regime continue to torture the sons (rarely daughters) of our beloved country, even in the face of trumped up charges of treason and other seditious charges? I think not. Our struggle for freedom should end when we attain a civilized society in which…
Author: Gainako
Beji Caid Essebsi Tunesia’s newly elected President (Reuters) – Veteran Tunisian politician Beji Caid Essebsi won the country’s first free presidential election in the final step of a transition to democracy after an uprising that ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Essebsi, a former Ben Ali official, beat rival Moncef Marzouki with 55.68 percent of the vote against 44.32 percent in Sunday’s run-off ballot between the two men, according to results released on Monday by electoral authorities. Both candidates called for calm after rioting briefly broke out in several southern towns in…
(Pic Courtesy NTIXANNEN) By Yero Jallow Sankanu has raised the alarm on a very unfortunate tone by the Angolan administration (Courtesy of NTIXANNEN, 12/20/2014). News tips I personally received from an anonymous family friend in Angola talks about a much higher number with even pregnant women as part of those arrested during Friday’s raid. The raid succeeded in disrupting Friday worshippers and businesses. Psychological impact is far greater than the visible physical impact, with knowledge that some of these African prison systems were built in poor, a condition which greatly affects prisoners’ health…
When the Gambia’s president, Yahya Jammeh said he will ‘execute child rapist’ and ‘send to prison for life those that dump babies,’ I thought for a minute that he forgot that this tiny West African nation already has some of the best child protection laws worth emulating across the world. It did not take me long to come to the realization that this African leader, who has ruled his country with an iron fist is not policy oriented. There are already existing laws with serious punishments for child rapist and neglect of children. Coming from the Gambia myself and…
Sidia Jatta In a written letter of appreciation on behalf of the beneficiaries of the Wulli Adult Literacy project, the founder of the program Sidia Jatta has written to donors who contributed generously towards the enhancement of the literacy project. Readers may recalled that a fundraising drive was initiated by Gainako team in collaboration with other Gambians to appeal to donors to contribute funds towards the literacy program in Wulli. The idea came about when Mr. Jatta appeared on this network to discuss about the importance of the Adult Literacy program to the local community which was founded when…
Background His rise to power in this tiny West African State of the Gambia was nothing but an accident in history that no historian or political scientist seem to be able to explain or fit into a political narrative. He had the greatest opportunity of a life time as one of the youngest leaders ever to take the leadership of a small peaceful nation with great potentials in human capacity to build a model society and Democratic multiparty system. When he forced himself into the Presidency just as military rule was becoming extinct in Africa, he claimed to be…
The late Yandeh Njie (RIP) President John F. Kennedy said, “A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.” I will reverse this and say “ A community reveals itself not only by the women and men it produces but also by the women and men it honors, the women and men it remembers” On Wednesday December 17th we said bye and laid to rest two people that have meant so much to our community, Amie Joof and Yandeh…
By Ebrima Baldeh Cabbie, a Latino friend of mine once remarked that there are two things that fascinates her. Guess what, do you know? The answer is literature and science. The discussion was centred on cosmology, ephemeral classicists and magic realism. Of course, the works of Paz, Marquez and Soyinka elongated our chat. Despite the minuscule size of our location, I could figure out the bigger world, and could not help but imagine whether I have ever met any thoroughbred Latino who was so immersed in literature and science than Cabbie. It is true that the Big Apple is…
Sait Matty Jaw, lecturer at the University of The Gambia, and two foreign nationals, Seth Yaw Kandeh and Olufemi Erinle Titus, Nigerian and Ghanaian respectively, were yesterday granted bail by Magistrate Samsideen Conteh of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court. The bail condition was for D5 million with two Gambian nationals one of whom must have landed property within the Greater Banjul Area equivalent to the bail bond. The bail conditions further stated that the accused persons should report to the Banjul Police Station every Monday and Friday, pending the outcome of the trial. The accused persons should also surrender their…
Former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gadaffi REUTERS/Desmond BoylanJohannesburg – The South African government and President Jacob Zuma have been caught in the middle of an international wrangle over as much as R2 trillion in US dollars as well as hundreds of tons of gold and at least six million carats of diamonds in assets belonging to the people of Libya. What could be the world’s largest cash pile is stored in palettes at seven heavily guarded warehouses and bunkers in secret locations between Joburg and Pretoria. The Libyan billions have led to a Hawks investigation into possible violation of…