We move on to discover...

Just because it was great, seemed, or felt awesome doesn't mean there's nothing else that has the (remote) possibility of getting even better.

But, if you SO cannot get over the past, or feel you must let bygones be bygones, forgive, forget, start anew and, you know, all those cute and perhaps humanly stuff, dig in; I mean your foot, just not in with both feet.

Remember what they say about the soup not being a different soup just because it's reheated, or probably served in a different bowl.

Barrow's cabinet reshuffle; the aftermath:

An utterly nauseating mutual consolation society will soon be formed on social media. Ndeysaan, wrong people are gonna be blamed for it.

You may want to get the popcorn, or go roll some weed, because it wouldn't be pretty. One must be incredibly very blind not to see the storm coming.

Well, it will be oddly fun to see those calling for a reshuffle couple weeks ago fuming because this one's a bit too close to home.

Another thing, feeling bad about a decision doesn't make it wrong. That terrible feeling that may want to second-guess the spine is usually the emotional effect.

Our young people aren't as choosy...

Most, if not all of us have been there, done that, dreamt, hoped, craved and occasionally wondered if the God abroad was more generous than the God ayard. But as soon as some of us travel or hit the big time, rather than being inspirations to many, we get all brusque, tweaking and embellishing our stories as if never-erred geniuses from birth, whilst trivialising the struggles of young people ayard.

By this, we confine them to despair, cause them to under-appreciate where they are, undervalue what they have at their disposal, and underrate what they can do with what they have at the moment. Eventually, in their heads, they create a situation in which no progress seem possible ayard.

I'm not denying the fact that you cannot climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets. But the way some of act as if to make it big, you gotta be that ultra-human, probably first in class from grade one to college type of person is a lie.

If success was the ultimate result of willingness to do difficult tasks, some people and projects get supported in this country will never make it beyond auditioning for Fools Got Talent, and some unconnected folks who our entrepreneurship openings don’t reach would’ve been tycoons.

A wise man once said that everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. Any fish, given the necessary appendage will take to the air. I’m quoting this as it relates to the often generalised youth-bashing I see on here. It annoys me, because I know better.

I find it incorrect when some of us associate this bread emergency to our youth feeling suited to desk jobs only. To me, the reason for that is because our education system lacks variety, because there’s very little regard for vocational and technical work.

I’m not gonna pretend to have done any employment survey or read any skills gap analysis report to authenticate my take. But, for what it’s worth, I can confirm that unlike prejudices held by some of us who’ve lost touch with realities on the ground, things have become so stiff ayard that our youth no longer have the luxury to be choosy as far as work is concerned.

It goes without saying that everywhere you go, even in mighty America, there are the lazy ones who feel too good to labour for their living. But, generally speaking, the number of young Gambians I see doing jobs that used to be alien-dominated, including owning bakeries, just like young ladies doing formerly male-dominated jobs deserve notice.

However, Napoleon believes that ability is nothing without opportunity. So they can only do as far as the opportunities presented permit.  And I am not saying that so young people can be too uncritically satisfied with the status quo. Rather, I want those saddled to create such opportunities to up their responsibility. May the good Lord lighten our individual burdens and better our conditions.

Those whose only tool is a wedge....

They say everyone is gifted. Some people never open their package. TRUE! As for the sycophants and jezebels, their only gift is a wedge. Since it’s a tool, be informed that they’re gonna use it to make you distrustful of the people you should trust the most.

If you're like, Mr. err… uhm… never mind!

If you’re the naïve type, or incredibly very (emotionally) stupid to believe everything they say, you'll start doubting motives and the loyalty of (even) those who've never given you reason to. That’s how they traffic and that’s how you’re gonna go down

Gambia, SSHFC Staff Protest...

They say you cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs and that’s true; but also, we need to overstand that anticipating a privilege can change one’s spending pattern, even one’s lifestyle, much less an age-long benefit. In view of that, grinding privileges like SSHFC's to a halt, even if it were the right thing to do, will rub many a beneficiary the wrong way, naturally.

So, even if the Social Security staff weren’t wronged as such, knowing how occasionally messy the process of managing change in a changing environment is, diffusing this situation requires that the authorities are sensitive in the way they handle matters.

For my part, I believe the staff would have made a better case if they stopped at exposing the alleged excesses of their MD and let the right authorities deal with the rot. But as it is, what the outsider sees are entitled members of staff and an outburst of unreasonable anger, which is an extra bullet for the MD.

Now, even if he were at fault, but smart and narcissistic, he can go anywhere and say: ‘you know what. If I have to, I will do it again. I cannot allow contributions that poor workers make into the system (in anticipation of benefits later on) be someone else’s osusu.”

Doing so, he’s going to get the support of the public and incidentally have his own sins absolved like it evidently is happening, because the show of uprightness that he parades is what we want to see in all heads of public institutions.

P.S. If you want to survive the cannibalism of this our crocodile age and you got no principles to safeguard, you gotta be a croc yourself: be ruthless, be acquisitive, be competitive, and look out for your own interest. Otherwise, use your intelligence, know your cannibal, work your plan, and avoid the fleas; good luck!  

Live and let the UDP live...

I woke up this morning, refreshed my browser and the first nasty-arse political post I saw motivated this:

Whichever way you want to interpret it, or wherever you think I belong, it's fine by me. I'm not some fool to blind his eyes pretending not to see what's happening, particularly by the NLF (National Lowlife Foundation) on social media.

I say if talking down to, or wishing to see everything go wrong for the UDP is your definition of having a nation to build, this nation is better off without your fervor, because you're so blinded you cannot see that the members of this coalition government who rate zero in my book, as far as producing or supporting any desired outcome is concerned, aren't even UDP.

But I guess I get it... that's us for you: bigotry towards everything and everyone reaching success but our own. I think it's the price the UDP is paying for being great, and more than probably why Talib enjoys some 'he-is-one-of-us' sort of clemency even though he's UDP.

The Gambia: the planned protest.

Maybe the rationale behind the protest is not just for the heck of palming off delusion upon the public. Maybe it represents the views of far more people than are actually declaring theirs on here. But you may not know that if rather than being inviting, you wanna beef with every supposed fence sitter, or all whose (careful) attention to the probable effects of the planned protest resembles support for the status quo.

Fact is: managing change in a changing environment is every change-seeker's job, and it isn't easy. Yes, fundamental rights shouldn't be given away, but one gotta overstand that this country had a hell of a history as far as street protests are concerned, and even though the history of violence and highhandedness was largely to the shame of the shitstem that was, it's natural that people are still hesitant. Once bitten, twice shy they say.

BUT, if you must protest because you feel it's a silver bullet, they say honey catches more flies than vinegar - honey metaphorically meaning tact... and because taunting one another advantages no one, you gotta use honey to enlighten, to let the hesitant appreciate that protesting is not like anyone should lose their breathing privileges. The goal is to enlighten and if reasonably done, many may come round eventually.