Feedback...

Not all who gives feedback is passing judgment... and unlike a military roll call, it cannot be 'all present and correct.'

So, feeling kinda dejected and all defensive whenever it's not a commendation or a favourable representation in words means you're not ready to improve.

Osama Sarwar said "success lies in absorbing negative feedback and making the best use of it" and I believe.

The best things in life are no longer free...

Akor: "the best things in life are free." N'kayeh n'mbang wulengkeh, n'mang song!!!

The best things in life are no longer free. In fact, the three most expensive things these days are freedom, healthcare and education. My boy says I should add pilgrimage and marriage but I'll pass.

Seriously, today, if you fall sick and you don't have money or some health insurance that you can depend on, you'll settle for Paracetamol or 'Nyorkett.' If you cannot afford a lawyer, you'll be convicted of a crime you didn't commit. And if you think those two are expensive, try higher education; even Gofundme is getting worried.

So, I say the best thing in life today is to get paid, knowing that you're gonna need to do stuff, and stuff cost money. Today, even if you want to make sense, you gotta be seen making money.

In the Gambia, ACCA is overrated...

First of all, no diss intended, but take offense if you like. God knows I'm not one to belittle achievements. I'm just of the opinion that the ACCA qualification is being overrated in this country. In fact, I will say it: a good number of these new breed of accountants who cannot count, but act as if they were doctorated in nuclear chemistry are just overpaid bookkeepers. If you think I'm being jealous because I didn't see it through, show me one that you can credit with making one professional breakthrough.

Granted, ACCA is a rewarding qualification, but it's not Alpha and Omega. Look, even professional pickpockets can form a body, develop skill standards for pickpocketing, turn the standards into teaching curricula, roll shit out to tuition providers that are willing to offer the programme and call the qualification ACP (Association of Certified Pickpockets). Same difference, seriously! And who knows, they may even secure a Presidential Charter - you know, add another C: ACCP (Association of Chartered Certified Pickpockets).

Gambia - Balance we need!

Gambia - it's a good thing we are coming on here to add our voice to our national conversation. But, without balance, it's just a confused uproar - "virtue is in the middle."

Thanks to the miracle of social media and of nerds taking over our existence, civil disobedience is being digitalised and it's a good thing. It's amazing how much impact you can have with just a smartphone and a hashtag. Today, even my type with glossophobia could be heard from our bedrooms.

However, whilst it's virtuous to disobey a thing that you feel was designed to make a few more equal than the many, it's equally virtuous to know when to apply your brakes. Taking things to excess would manifest as recklessness, and not only that; it may cause you to lose your truth, or reveal your true colours - as in your ulterior motive with what you bash. Well, evidently!

There's no system that's excellent and delightful in all respects. So, if you act as if yours is the perfectest thing since [what I want to say is rude], you’re only being a political ambassador trying to give excuse for not doing better or trying harder.

But also, if you're campaigning for change to a system in which everything and everyone works in perfect harmony, delete that thought already, because shit will always happen. We gotta be even-handed in the way we appraise. It will take us far.

Shadeism

Your economic or educational gains regardless, as long as you’re black - I mean dark, you're vulnerable to colourism in Northern Africa. For the record, I'm not saying every North African is a nutcase like that, because even in the desert you'll find an oasis.

What I mean is, the recent footage of migrants being sold off as slaves in Libyan 'slave markets' is perhaps fresh and so it sparks outrage, but it's a manifestation of realities from 19 o'long. Gaddafi used many of our brothers as mercenaries.

If you ask me, ours is a clusterfuck of a continent where equality is just a pretext in speeches - as elusive as the U in AU, and as the C in ECOWAS.

Can't we all be our individual best?

It's amazing how much greatness we can create in this country if only we allow everyone to be their individual best, if we stop making everything as if a contest for a prize or some award, and if we could extol our favourites without lowering someone else's in position.

Seriously, I see no relevance in setting two in opposition if they aren't mutually exclusive. Wait, I think my language is failing me; let me give an example: if you want to say how amazing Gee is, just say 'Gee's dope.' It's not necessary to say 'Omar is straight-up wack' just to justify that Gee's the bomb. Yeah, that's pretty clear.

Why we have jobs without people...

And because our career dreams are functionally the same, i.e. a steady job in civil service, we have as many people without jobs as there are jobs without people, despite our many talents and impressive college education, and I believe this points to a lack, defect, failing, or all of the above in our education system.

Ours is so academic, its practical importance is borderline... by it we take school for the sole source and referent of the term education, 'mansakunda dokuwo' the only source of employment. So we all go in there not just to satisfy our intellectual curiosities, but to be programmed with the same software. And because people are different, the software when incompatible becomes malware, evidently.

I'm not an educationist and I'm not pretending to be one. But I needn't be one to know that the word 'educate' is derived from the Latin word 'educo,' meaning to educe - to bring out, to draw out, and to develop from within. So if you call yourself educated and you cannot use it to power up your talent or turn on someone else's, but rather let your talent turn on you, yours isn't education, 'ejukenseng' (butt-naked) more like.

Colourism!

Wait... if these Arabs can feel too superior to honour Bilal ibn Rabah as one of the most trusted and loyal companion of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, do you think they'll have any regard for you and I? And that's symbolically speaking.

I'm talking to y'all wannabe Arabs, y'all that I see wearing desert protective clothes during a typical Gambian summer and you think it's Sunnah, y'all who hold Arabic newspapers sacred, because you cannot distinguish between mere Arabic text and the Qur'an, all y'all who think it's haram to listen to Cess Ngom during Ramadan, but you can listen to najwa karam because she sings in Arabic, her lyrics regardless.

Listen Africans! Before oppressed people, we were blessed people, so let's not be oppressed by ourselves. Say to hell with colourism, f*ck what's going on in Libya. Damn the African Union and shout out to Burkina Faso for making the first move in showing the government of Libya that all men are created equal. Let's stop subjecting ourselves to mental slavery. Let's stop shedding all our values in the name of wakefulness, because no single race is of higher consciousness than the other, and if I'm wrong, then mine is a racial accident because I'm not unconscious.

Now to all you borderline specialists in African affairs: check your sense of Pan-Africanism by comparison with the efforts that rebuilt Europe after the second World War and see if we are doing great... what are we using our support structure for? I say abso-freaking-lutely nothing other than making grandiloquent speeches in celebration of pseudo-Pan-African led dictatorships that are even more evil than colonialism.

Pan-Africanism doesn't stop at calling each other "comrade," wearing Mutabaruka inspired clothes, singing 'Shosholoza' and quoting Julius Nyerere. We need to use the cause to educe black potential, to support all blacks to develop from within, and do so until fair-coloured chauvinism is no longer able to reproduce. But until then, y'all contemporary Pan-Africans bore me to death.

New Zimbabwe

I hope Zimbabwe is not just free from Mugabe but free at last. Historically speaking, many an African revolutionary agitator that ascended the throne 'this way' soon forgot his mission, confused his boundary, and parted with his principles.

So, instead of changing the system, many allowed the 'shitstem' to change them - or should I say reveal them. Many, perhaps unwittingly, got consumed by greed, ended up sacrificing every single value they once held dear, becoming manifestations of the same mindset that caused them to revolt.

So, yeah, I'm happy there's change, but not too thrilled until the agents of this change use their newfound power to empower and not overpower.

Are we all created equal?

By our superficial human perceptions, it's natural to question the belief that all men are created equal, and the fairness of nature by the conditions of those who are differently enabled (not disabled). However, we believe that all people will be put to test, and that belief is the substance of our hope, and it suffices evidence for a people of faith.

We believe that we shall be tested through adversity as well as prosperity. So to think that you that's being tested by your wealth and good health have it easier than those that are being tested otherwise is erroneous. Prophet Job was tested with affliction but he remained steadfast. The pharaoh was tested through might, and it seemed a more lenient test, but we all know the rest of the story.

Badmind ah di worsest disease...

Maliciously grudging people can dislike you just for the heck of it, but usually for the blessings you have that they wish were theirs, and they'll turn gods and psychics about it, passing judgments like: 'you think you're [insert adjective] - say smart or beautiful for instance.

If you ask me, you're what they say you think you're; they're just too stingy with compliments. World Boss says it (badmind) is the "worsest" disease. I guess because it affects the heart. So it has nothing to do with your person. They that someone else's God-given gift arouses negative feelings in are the ones whose karma I worry about.

Our ladies are dope. I mean they evince hope...

Anyone who labels Gambian ladies as still petty, competitive or mean to one another isn’t paying attention. In fact, the person should do two rakats and repent.

Seriously, in addition to big-mouthing, all of the above traits are now hijacked by us - so much that even what we consider male fashion is so coquettish I can blaze fyah pon it and I’m not envious. 

So, just as I’m ensnared in the devolution of my gentlemanly standards just to be appropriate to the foolishness and ‘con-troversy’ on social media and I’m not the only guy, my sister is out there kicking ass and she isn’t the only lady, (talk about girl power!), touch wood.

Politics and sycophancy...

Politics and sycophancy will always sail together - be it the politics on here, your soccer team, at home, in corporate circles, but particularly within the state and its administration, and from Washington to Banjul. There'll always be those whose only way to advancing their careers or achieving their goals is by cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous means.

From when you're just an eager beaver amongst frauds like that, from when you refuse to be as shallow and callow as they'd wish, you'll intimidate them. So they'll use a whole range of outrageous Machiavellian manoeuvres against you, frame you, advise against you, up to getting rid of you. In fact, their greatest most intelligent success is when they deceptively play the leadership into taking their two-faced and fawning attitudes for firmness in allegiance. Remember how our former president in conceding defeat lamented that some of his Greens were turning Yellow? Yeah mon, he was played same way.

Don't get me wrong. Politics is noble, but such is the reason why the Rastaman calls it "polytricks"- too many dishonest and self-serving tricks, or polyticks - poly as in many and ticks as in bloodsucking creatures. And like the AIDS virus, you can't tell who is who by looking. You gotta pay attention to the symptoms. And rather than acting rashly, check the validity of the stories and jokes they bring just to get close to you.

What we need...

The way we are so angry and so offended about every little thing on social media these days, as if retaliations-in-waiting - like: "hnn, beyma ken wakh dara rek!” We prob’ly need a Minister of State for Happiness – UAE style.

The first I heard about the existence of a Ministry like that from my boss, I thought he was joking. Sheikh Google said: yes, he's right! Apparently bizarre, but the Ministry's proven to be necessary and effective. We need one to cast off our inhibitions, create a happier Gambia – y’know, one befitting a “Smiling Coast.”

About the ex-Interior Minister...

I don't know the man in person. In fact, prior to December last year, and my decision to vote for "anything" against the idiocratic shitstem we had, Mai Fatty was to me as all politicians were: self-serving. However, we (humans) as visual creatures process information, form opinions and perceptions about people and things based on what we see.

So, in the absence of evidence or the state opening up to say otherwise, the man was a hardworking Minister, radically accessible and a dandified gentleman. For now, the conflicting accusations I'm seeing on here are what they are: rumours, devious innuendos, and assumptions - evincing nothing but the typical: e'nyan, bon, fimisteh, khiss, sohorr, waaneh, kaajeh, rambajj... yeah, and that too.

Here, be motivated...

Ignoring the naysayers to proceed with your idea is just the beginning of success, defying the nonacademic PhDs (pull him(her) downs) after success is the next and prob'ly hardest level.

Best believe it - a pull is easier than a push - I mean it's easier to fall than rise, even more difficult to rise after a fall. So, to maintain your new status against the odds, you've to try extra hard, and I'll suggest twice as much as you did going up.

You can't out-game politicians...

Even though it's pretty much a given that slicing onions will make you cry, and pobarr will make you sneeze, some of us will go into the kitchen, do all that, come on social media and blame every reaction on politicians, or make one angry hashtag about it.

No wonder some of these politicians will also offer fake compassion: 'aw, we feel your plight, and in the very near future, all onions and pepper coming into the country will be free from chemical irritants...' yeah, and we will clap as if Theophrastus has spoken. You cannot out-scam them.

Misunderstanding...

Misunderstanding is the root cause of many a dissension. That's why it's not uncommon to see two quarrel, and when you ask waguan, you realise that in fact, they were both saying the same thing differently.

It makes us hold others responsible not for what they actually say or really mean, but for our own erroneous interpretations.

Like the other day, this guy went into an eatery for dinner. Serving him, the waitress asked: "Sir, will you need a fork?" And perhaps because of the "Happy Ending" label on the door, the guy replied with great excitement: "Eh? Ah... yeah, but after dinner." And so he was defeated of his expectation.

The types of doers in this New Gambia...

Four agents/doers I have observed in this New Gambia: 

1 - Low-key doers: subtle in approach and so evasive of attention. They're so reckful that theirs is often misunderstood as indifference. Their methods and routes can be so long and winding but usually practical.

2 - High-key doers: they must flaunt everything they do, and so loudly that it can be seen, heard, and talked about. You cannot but admire their gift for attention.

3 - The Trojans: appealingly disguised as genuine but spitefully misleading. Traits: identity politics, destiny-denying bigotry, covert tribalism (inventing instances of discrimination just to play victim and throw slurs), selective bashing, pseudo-empathy, bunch of flip-floppers and disappointed cherrypickers calling people hypocrites. You cannot even have an intelligent conversation with them without draining your energy. May we know them so we know how to deal with them.

4 - The rest of us.

If you blame them, blame the courtiers...

I wouldn't blame the presidents entirely. Without all those self-serving courtiers around their presidencies - I mean those whose ambitions are driven by their greed to remain privileged, and so much that they're opposed to change, no president in Africa will have the balls to overstay, because power belongs to the people.

Gambia social media community and bigotry...

Two can play the ‘ndoti-ndoti’ game. But it’s not a national day of bigotry so I abstain. Still, we need to overstand that system change is not a rap battle. In fact, initiating the process is one thing - having to deal with nerves, especially of those who are emotionally attached to what was is another thing.

We cannot attain the change we desire if we keep cheering each other into foolishness, irresponsibility, insolence, and the use of very blinkered, condemnatory, and generalising comments like the following among others that I pieced from an awfully bigoted Facebook thread:

One said to the other: "...for them it’s like a Mandinka is ruling, so we have to make sure that we defend him at all cost, because they're the rightful rulers of this country." The other said: "I am utterly disgusted and knowing how we all defended them last year when Jammeh said the same thing to them..." then the sheep rudely stuck his oar in: “the green youths are far better than these people."  Now, do you have to be a Shakespeare to infer reference of the pronouns? Egg-zact-ly!

All who is genuine must endeavour to dead these reckless appraisals by calling them what they are: condescending, narcissistic, not realistic... sheer emotions excited by frustrated senses of entitlement, that’s what they are. I was so disappointed that the above comments were made by people I once respected; little did I know they were just pretending to be against the valuation of people according to preconceptions. 

It’s fucked up how a good number of us who claim to be politically open-minded are just a bunch of pseudo-liberals, evidenced by illiberal thoughts and tendencies like the excerpts above. If you think I’m lying, just resist their resistance, even if teasingly so, and see how their inclinations, prejudices and preferences in the closet will come all up on you like bees. But that’s it; patronage is a thing of the heart; you can’t hide it for long - it must out.

Before I finish, here’s free advice: it’s natural that when change occurs, some thoughts are overwhelmed by emotions of what was, some minds woken up, and some hearts broken. But because events in life are not recordings that you can playback, fast-forward or rewind anytime you want, it is best to press the play and savour every minute of the moment, of course not losing grip on the degree of focus required for the future.

Bul heyp ku nyow ess. Bul ceasi't kula jiutu... bokalen ligeuye...

When someone's new to, or unfamiliar with the ways you do things at work, take it easy on the person; do not taunt. You empathise to encourage, knowing that some period in the past, you were as green.

As for you who's new, what you think you know regardless, some things you learn by doing. So, don't pretend to know if you don't. If you don't want to be invisiblised that is. Don't look down your nose at experience; it's also a valuable thing.

Just stay positive...

Each time you feel like you're doing great, shit happens and you're given cause to get upset, I know. It's a resentfully prejudiced road out there, selfish, cold, slanderous, cunningly greedy, you name the fuckeries. And there's so much excitement about nothing.

Still, make your moves. Take your chances, go to Plan B, err, learn from it, load Plan C, grow like there's always an opportunity in every difficulty.

Don't let the devil switch your presets. Pay attention - just because a thing's unlikely doesn't mean it's impossible. Obama and Barrow became presidents, remember? Count your blessings. Savor the positives and let the negative thinkers wallow in their muds of negativity. Hopefully, today will give birth to some goodness.

The Super Nawettans (Zonals) are promising.

When Senegal saw that local wrestling was gaining appeal, the wrestling federation got it structured, the government provided the environment, the media got involved, national and private television stations designed programmes to rouse public interest, made celebrities and role models out of the athletes, and gave businesses an opportunity to sell their goods and services through sponsorships.

Gambia, contemporary, if we truly want to develop sports, football in particular, that's the way to go, and the zonals are a start. See it more than just a pastime, make it attractive and spare us that tired-arse 'we-need-to-go-back-to-the-grassroots' strategy. Raise money and pay money, the grassroots will come to you. Seeing the crowd and the talents in this zonals, just as the ones before, I cannot but wish these kids a career better than mine: "koto bi mo munon ball" - that, a certificate, a trophy and D750 are all I can show for playing ball.

About #OccupyWestfield...

Even I know that politics and protests have a long-standing connection. Even I believe that you cannot call it ‘social equality’ if young people aren’t allowed to feel worthy of attention, if they are denied their right to be heard and to voice their objections and concerns without hesitation. But whether this entitles young people to always have the last word is what I doubt.

From when the proposed #OccupyWestfield protest was conceived on here, I had zero fears as regards the intentions, because within the "movement" I know young folks who even though they may not be as conservative in the way they do their thing, even I am wowed by their valor and liberty of mind. So to say they don’t have their hearts in the right place is just a chat.

However, emotions almost took over some hearts just after the denial of a permit to go ahead with the protest. Focus started shifting to the illegalness of the denial than the end in mind. I started seeing defiance-nudging comments, causing so much agitation, even after the fact that to me, the online campaign has already won the executive’s attention and interest.

At this stage therefore, some activists would’ve given the executive the benefit of the doubt as to whether they’ll keep their side of the bargain. In fact, if December is what they say, some would’ve given them till January, so that in the event there's failure, they'll have better base to justify a Plan B.

I have to be honest - by the looks of things and the trend of arguments, it's as if we just crave a protest and protest we will regardless. So, I ask: what if the National Security team's appeal to put a brake on the protest is really and truly for the safety of country? What if they cannot divulge details of the alleged threat for same security reasons? What facts have we that theirs is just aiding the creation of a culture of fear?

As a final point, I’m not rebuking anyone. It’ll be very inconsiderate of me to chastise the young for their tenacity in the face of risks, because I have been there. I'd equally be too idealistic to expect them to overstand my perception, calmness and composure, because they haven’t gotten the years in my age. But I get disappointed when I see elderly folks who rather than urging the youth to show moderation in what they do are goading them into confusion.