By Mathew K Jallow Propaganda has the capacity to yield subliminal, Pavlovian responses, which defy reason. As a tool of mental and intellectual repression, the intent is to freeze, and even deny, the concept of independent thinking for the safer imagination deficit and idea free subjective reasoning. A scrutiny of African dictatorships finds uncanny similarities between autocracies, which dominated East European politics in the late 1980s, and existing African monocracies that inhibit imagination, intellectual freedom and economic progress. The paucity of intellectual freedom, the thread that weaves through this complicated social and political fabric, binds the two governance systems…
Author: Gainako
By Karamba Touray The largest constituency in The Gambia has always been the one opposed to the regime of Yahya Jammeh. This is not an opinion but a statement of fact as shown in the last measure of his standing with The Gambian people in the previous general election when more than half of the registered voters either voted for his opponents or stayed away from the polls entirely.For an entrenched incumbent that has ruthlessly employed all the instruments of government to propagate itself, and suppress its legal opponents by…
By YJ http://www.wbaltv.com/news/arrest-made-in-millersville-homicide/29859744 “Police said witnesses and evidence helped lead them to Gunter. Detectives found him Thursday and said he admitted during an interview to shooting the victim” (Wbaltv, Culled from the web, 11/22/2014). Here are some interesting developments. One Shupelle Gunter, Baltimore, has been apprehended in the murder of Seydou Ba, a Senegalese national, Mbaltv reported. Killers and brutes have no shame. While they are doing evil, they forget that their foot tracks are traceable. I think it is rightly said, “You can run but you can’t hide.” Most of the time, their foot prints are right there,…
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS STATEMENT: Gambia’s recent passage of a homophobic law puts the already persecuted lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community at even greater risk of abuse, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. The new crime of “aggravated homosexuality,” which carries punishments of up to life in prison, is part of a criminal code President Yahya Jammeh approved on October 9, 2014, documents uncovered this week show. Among those who could be charged with “aggravated homosexuality” are “serial offenders” and people living with HIV who are deemed…
Terrified of the activities of the former minister of information and Gambian dissidents who have made their intentions clear to end impunity in the Gambia; the Jammeh government rushed to issue an indictment and an arrest warrant for Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh for distributing T-shirts in Senegal. Dr. Janneh and colleagues were in Senegal distributing T-shirts at the border village of Karang calling for an end to Yahya Jammeh’s dictatorial regime in Banjul. He was briefly detained with activist Seedy Ceesay but both were later released unconditionally. The rush to indict Dr. Janneh before a court of law in…
By Madi Jorbarteh ‘Our National Budget is Our Sovereignty that must be Guarded, Jealously!’ Intro In 1920, EF Small, our Father of Independence shouted ‘No taxation without representation’. By then Gambians do not vote for a government because we had the abominable colonialists sitting on our heads and milking us like cows without mercy or conscience. Our people pay tax, yet some other aliens decide how to use it, anyhow. Since gaining independence in 1970, we now have representation through our National Assembly who decides on our behalf and in our name how to use our public money. In the…
By Baba G. Jallow When Creighton University’s African Students Association (AFSA) approached me to give a guest lecture at their annual banquet on the topic “Redefining Africa”, I knew exactly where they were coming from. However, I still asked them what they had in mind: Well, they said, we just want people to move away from all the negative stereotypes they associate with Africa; we want people to know that Africa is beautiful, that Africa is not all about the wars, the poverty, the disease and despair that are the common staple of western television and other media. We…
[image] Obituary: The Late Seydou Ba By Yero Jallow I was alerted to the death of Mr. Seydou Ba, a Senegalese national, whom I happen to know from early 2000. Seydou was my neighbor in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Seydou was in his mid-forties. According the news report (Source: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/mans-body-discovered-monday-in-car-in-millersville/29772530), Seydou was found in his car and pronounced dead on the spot in the early hours of Monday November 17th 2014. Seydou studied in Russia to the level of graduate studies, after which he moved with his Russian wife to Maryland. He continued studying while in the Washington DC area. He was…
‘Aproves 85 Million Dalasis Wasteful Spending for July 22nd Celebrations’ In July 2014 we authored a piece branding Gambia’s House of Parliament as the most embarrassing Institution in the nation. The premise of our argument was that the legislative body has been consistently used by President Jammeh to pass laws that defies common sense and directly contravenes the building of a democratic and free nation. We cited numerous examples; from the draconian media laws, the elimination of Presidential term limits, the insertions of age limit for contesting the Presidency, restoration of the death penalty to amending laws that…
Justice Emmanuel Amadi is expected to deliver a ruling on an application for bail submitted by the defence and objected to by the prosecution on Tuesday, 25th November, 2014 concerning Mr. Momodou Sabally, the former Secretary General and Head of the Civil Service and Minister for Presidential affairs. This proceeding took place on Monday, 17th November, 2014 at the Special Criminal division of the High Court of the Gambia in a congested court room fill with relatives and sympathizers. When the matter was called, Mr. Barkun, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) appeared for the state whilst Lawyer Antouman Gaye…