The "#NewGambia" Debates still...

On the sidelines on Facebook, I see folks cry foul as if they're being denied the right to become today's Bayard Rustin  - y'know, "speaking truth to power" and all. In one forum, one couldn't vindicate an argument, so he blamed it on the spirit of moderation being upheld. He was like: "Dammit! Why y'all catch feels when people attack (he meant criticise) the government... is it a crime?" He rabbled.

In my head I was like, certainly not; speak up, bredda! But, wait... must you also forcibly impose your dissent on others like that; or is assent the new crime? Is it fair to refer to others as "sheep," just because they haven't seen the crying shame and incompetence that you see in everyone and everything? Can't you see that ours is a society where beliefs (including yours) are largely driven by emotions? Why must what's deserving criticism or not deserving praise be absolute?

So, before taking my sabbatical I concluded that in this New "#NewGambia" one here, political debate is just one big old seesaw between preferences and facts, hence a political roller-coaster. This is why one minute everything seems democratic, then it resembles partisanship straight up, and next: 3, 2, 1, bam! It's antiestablishmentarianism, yo!

And once upon a time, we did it so well that I was so naive thinking that our solidarity for change was all love. Apparently, it wasn't. Now it's clear that we were because of the suffering at the time. Ours was solidarity without attention to the active opposition within. We were sparing no effort against tyranny... Here's to wishing this assessment is wrong.

The Gambia - interesting times...

Any system of leadership that succeeds idiocracy will resemble geniocracy, but until a situation arises where successor-bashing alone is not enough, a situation where there's conflict between what needs to be done and what people would rather see you do, and you have to decide; a decision that may appear as if a leaf borrowed from the predecessor's playbook.

Those followers who are imbued with reason will overstand. Those who took the change of leadership for a grant to operate outside established laws and norms will start to reevaluate their patronage. Me? I spectate still. By the way, I see KMC's trending; interesting times in The Gambia... even seen people squelching logic with metaphors. So creative if you ask me.

The "#NewGambia" today...

Once upon a time, my friend was coming from school in Banjul. At the Bakau junction, OJ (then a Minister under the First Republic) drove past as they look for a ride home. He pulled over, reversed to where they were. In his ministerial Mercedes he took in the kids and gave the rest D25 each. From that day on, my boy became an OJ disciple, and by his account I also became one. This is just to show how inexpensive goodwill is, and how I love it when a person of influence is imbued with the spirit of the common man.

Couple years ago, I was coming from the Traffic Lights going to the Independence Stadium to play ball. By the Glory Baptist, I saw a speeding presidential convoy coming. Typical of the time, the escort was occupying both lanes and even parts of the walkway, narrowing my options to making a shoulder drop-off, risking a scrape, or even breaking my bottom plate than getting into a head-on.

Today, July 5, 2017, between the Pipeline Mosque and Africell, I chanced upon President Barrow's convoy. As undivided a highway as Kairaba Avenue is, his kept to its lane without disturbing the opposing flow of traffic. Cosmetic or genuine I don't care, it was an honourable act. It rebuilt my faith in the restoration of my rights and dignity as a citizen of this country, like we have all the time been yearning for.... and the convoy though militarised, it was so moderate in speed that I could see and confirm that indeed, a lady doesn't come much classier than our First Lady. If you know her, tell her I said her presidential wave is dope. In fact, tell the First Family to stay as humble as I think they are; it will take them far.

Humans...

We think we are so smart that we can modify the natural order of things and nothing will happen. We think we can defy the twelfth verse of the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and be loved regardless.

So we create a harmattan in Manhattan, and we say: oh, it’s just climate change - serious troubles! Then we spend our whole existence trying to troubleshoot the same troubles that we created by doing all what God said we shouldn't. You see, Confucius is right: “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

Another thing: correcting one’s mistake doesn’t operate on autopilot; it requires hands-on. So the onus is on the one who committed the mistake to accept and make up for it. Otherwise, one may end up devoting a huge amount of one’s time trying to fix what the military calls: ‘SNAFU’ (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up) or ‘FUBAR’ (Fucked Up Beyond All Repair).

Tribalism...

Just like Buju said: "tief neva love fi see tief wid long bag." Same way, most whose decisions would've been tribally driven tend to tribalise other people's decisions and preferences because they themselves are tribalists.

According to me, their tribalistic sentiments and cooking of allegations from non-issues are usually because their preferred or tribe-favoured options aren't possible, and because they're tribal supremacists like that, they stoke the tribal card.

Can't vibe with someone like that...

Even more depressing than dealing with apathetic people is trying to vibe with someone who's so self invested that he trivialises everyone else's just to impose his emergencies upon others.

Someone said such people can see you on life support, pull the plug just to charge their phone. Like: what that hell, can't you see I cannot breath? Oh, just a few minutes, I'm expecting an international call... fyah burn buwa ya like that!

Survival isn't a fair fight...

Survival isn't a fair fight, that's a fact. But in this our privatised world where obligation is becoming increasingly exclusive, where who wins and who loses is premeditated, where the name one drops as reference is proof of ability, more like all one needs to get a fight rigged in one's favour, like dad's father's once did pops, you wonder if the root cause of this unfair fight is in fact natural.

Here's my "conspiracy" theory regarding perpetration: the powerful few, those who keep tipping the scales when they want theirs to win the fight, those who unduly raise the bar so that some will live and die as peons, and the selfish complacency of some doormats. Allow that to marinate whilst I sell some dope... oops! I mean some hope to the hopeless.

Like I told the young man selling socks and hand towels at Westfield: never let anyone to downplay your grind. Screw all the lies that they'll indict you for. Some people were born to succeed and you're one of them. I told him that he doesn't necessarily have to inherit it or win it to be it, that it takes time, persistence and a lot of going against the odds, but by God, he'll break out. For the record, I'm not disgruntled. I'm just glad that God did not grant my request for a pistol at eighteen, because I might not have lived beyond nineteen, and certainly wouldn't have seen things the way I see them at these post-teens.