Tell me this isn't true...

The Gambia: where emotions are confused with logic, where certification of academic achievement is the only standard by which the use and development of the intellect, reasoning, and exposure are measured. So every degree holder is an automatic intellectual, and differently educated folks would rather be seen and not heard, because they'd be asked: with what authority do you speak?

Sad... the creams of the national crop that the common man naturally trusts to bring forth change have no track record of commitment to anything but impertinent debates and rash censures; so uninspiring, so skeptical of the integrity, sincerity, and motives of every change agent, except their preferences, and so jadedly distrustful and mocking of every national enterprise that they feel left out of.

The Gambia: where the (supposed) intellectual élite is as entitled and as cynical as they come - seers of a dystopia in the making, unless perhaps we issue a charter conferring all rights, privileges and our national destiny on them on a silver platter, which becomes chaotic, because starting small to grow big isn't their thing.

They believe their "qualifications" are tickets to instant opulence. So a certified engineer for instance wants a big paper-pushing job, big car, perdiem-scoring trips abroad, etc. Well, what do you expect of an engineer who cannot even engineer a 'furrno kerign' let alone create jobs. His "capacity-building" endeavour wasn't for that capacity, but an all-in bet for some big position promised thereof.

This is why the top brass of the civil service is bloated with inessential suits, because anyone who finishes a course of study wants a promotion, and so a position is invented. For instance, a ministry of forty can have a minister, two PSs, three DPSs, four directors (including a director of budget, and a director of planning, all in the business of planning), three deputy directors, a pool of principal, senior, and deputy assistant secretaries, etc.

Now, use the example above and do the math: that's like twenty-ten coaches coaching fifteen (actual) players in the field. No wonder the players are confused, the coaches wrangling, and we think we are winning? Mtcheew!