Anyone can be subjective...

#NewGambia - 'lu opah toorou!' Because even the most open-minded and tolerant of men have their moments of fatigue, and you cannot call it intolerance when they too invoke their right not to tolerate the intolerant - you feel me?

In fact, right now, some of us who are on here to connect with friends, with family and like-minded people are becoming sick and tired of being sick and tired of blinding our eyes and pretending not to see how insidious the political maneuvers are in this 'New Gambia,' particularly the passive aggressive bigotry trending on social media - you know, under the guise of political humour or the spirit of some (idealistic) democratic BS, by people flattering themselves as if the deepest in the room.

See, people need to overstand that others are exercising restraint simply because the constant hostility is not conducive to progress, but when push comes to shove, anyone can hit the 'Fuck it' button and misbehave like anyone else, 'nabeh tinyaala, abeh yeh tinyaa!' And if bigotry is what we want, bigots we can all bomboclaat be. Watch it!

Another Babylonian injustice...

Where I live, NAWEC's not the only oppressor. Internet (data) is a bloodclaat joke. Serious thing! Mini WiFis, 3Gs and (supposed) 4Gs round here are sinfully slacker than Comium's GPRS. Trust it dead, I ain't lying when I tell you it takes my browser like twenty-ten refreshes to have stuff posted on here, and this rant will probably take more. Yeah, rather than access I get axed and ex'd. Bloody hell!

Lawyer Tambadou must hear this. I see Babylonian injustice. I frequent uptown, so I can confirm that internet's relatively faster round there, as if we here don't matter, as if ours is an offering, and we all pay the same ultra expensive shit and thing. Call Customer Care and they'll ask you to switch to Flight Mode and back... maybe I should take my holy rosary and go Roman Catholic on these companies  - you know, curse their illicit profits.

Narcissistic...

If you think NAWEC's unfeeling, shifty and unpredictable, try a narcissist. Like an electric switch, his friendship can turn off to enemyship in no time, and for no apparent reason.

Be you a friend, a spouse, co-worker, or anyone he comes in contact with, the narcissist will try to screw your mind just to feed off it. If you choose to be an enabler because you're parasitic and slavish like that, you're cool with him.

You who he cannot manipulate, he'll introduce to a whole new world of drama and feed off your unhappiness. If you ask me, every fault that he accuses you of is usually not yours. And it'd be easier to find a flying fish than to expect him to accept his faults let alone change or apologise.

Are you truly liberal?

What you claim regardless, you are neither a liberal nor socially tolerant if you keep having a problem with anyone who does not have a problem with what you have a problem with.

It is perfectly natural for others to not have a problem with what you have a problem with, even if your having a problem with what you have a problem with is divinely sanctioned, and them seemingly sheeple.

Gambia, dem beh nyaaka dem bi, si nyun la dess!

In order to nullify this increasingly popular "Gambia Du Dem" notion, and to develop as a people, we must develop mindsets, rise above the ego-inflating pettiness, be more obliging, and rekindle that obsession we had with being Gambian - yeah, I'm old enough to confirm that that's how blessed we were before we became oppressed.

We must learn to ignore the ignorable - you know, things of little significance and value, like who cannot use a fork and a knife, like who wears heels to the beach, whose Gucci is real and whose is Made in China, like trivialising some efforts and authentic dreams whilst celebrating illusions, like acting wasteful as if "taka" or "futu-sito" is different from a wedding.

We need to use our energy on things that matter, the big picture: prerequisites to development - like encouraging intelligent and foresighted national conversations, not the usual seemingly 'us versus them', or debates intended to goad one another into anger, like validating every decent education or employable skill, source regardless, like inspiring entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, not just serving self-serving entrepreneurs, like praying for NAWEC for instance - yuh see mi?

Maneh, Gambia dina dehmam?

Maybe I’m not as patriotic, maybe like I sometimes want to believe, my being Gambian is a geographical accident – but that’s beside the point. All I can say is, collectively and especially on here, we don’t act like nyu buga dem, seriously! My theory: If half is finding solutions to our collective problems, and the other (usually louder) half is finding problems with/for every solution, there can only be plenty of noise - you know, like Roadman Shaq singing, no solution - yuh see me?

Propaganda...

In this our world of increasing misinformation, a world where media entities deliberately and misleadingly tailor news to fit a particular partisan agenda, and invariably so, a world where bad news sells more than breakthroughs, where my creative writings provide more truth than your average news item, and with journalists who cannot spell, forming an opinion about how good or bad something is, based on a headline, without reading and overstanding content is as reckless as using a knitted condom. I don't know about people, but me? Give me the whole story or miss me with it.

The Gambia and the concept of education...

When the dictionary defines ‘education’ as an enlightening experience, or the facilitation of the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits, the ‘school, college or university’ is used to exemplify source or access, but it’s preceded by the adverb “especially” – meaning: for the most part.

Now, does this definition preclude the fact that it’s an education to watch a good workman work? Would I be wrong to say that Jatto Ceesay is educated in the art of football, or some unlettered Sarahuleh entrepreneur in the art of moneymaking, et cetera? That’s what I thought.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with this saying: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” if you ask me why, I'll say because there are people who learn best by doing.

Well, it’s just unfortunate that here, not all educated minds have educated hearts, and it takes both to be really educated. Here, hearts are so resentful that it hurts some academic supremacists to see differently-educated people doing extremely well without a college attendance certificate.

I hate to say this, and it’s me being optimistic. Before our hearts are as educated to appreciate hard skills just as we do abstract learning, and to differentiate between idealised capacity (competence) and performance, swear down the rest of humanity would finally be living on planet Mars, and we’ll be here wretched, lonely, “Building The New Gambia” or trying to overstand the concept of democracy, NAWEC doing what it does best, because the “qualified” engineers cannot engineer ‘furrno-kerign’ let alone generate electricity - talk about behind the times.

Glossophobia...

I have been fighting glossophobia my whole life and I couldn't graduate. So I prefer writing to talking. Do I admire people who are able to resist that crippling fear of putting themselves on a podium, yes. But I'm not ashamed that I still suck, and I'm not alone.

Someone said that "public speaking is the number one fear in America. Death is number two." So funny, yet so true. In fact, many a famous speechmaker throughout history was once terrified of public speaking, confessedly.

So I hate it when people ridicule others for their speech anxiety, or equating it to stupidity, and as if they themselves were born on a podium with silver microphones, when in fact their command of the art is but in the delivery of high sounding absolute nonsense.

About the lies on social media...

Some hoaxes online make me want to wish that all keyboards come with built-in polygraphs (machines that detect lies). So that whenever one hits the enter button to post crap, the beeper will go like: BEEP, BULLSHIT DETECTED!

Some critiques, eh!

When your tailor sees you with a nice Khaftan that he certainly didn't sew, it's not uncommon that he feels cheated on, and to want find a way to give vent to his emotions, usually offering very trivial and inexistent critiques - say it's too long, too tight, the placement of the buttons is awful, it doesn't match your physique, the breast-pocket is outdated... y'know, et cetera! Kids today will say "he hating" - to mean jealousy and anger bundled as criticism.

Writing...

What you write, when it's genuine, unaffected, and honest enough, actually happening or capable of happening, people relate; people connect because it's real.

Truth is: we may put on cosmetic displays here and there - y'know, just to acquire that social image that comes with acting a certain way, but deep down, we all like it simple and ordinary.

This is why we all enjoy events where we can loosen up and just stay true to ourselves. Just that not everyone has the courage to resist the temptation to pretend sophistication.