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Stranger In Banjul: Town Crier Is Back!!
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Stranger In Banjul: Town Crier Is Back!!
I have been serializing the journey of my good friend Parrot. A few days ago
he called me and asked that I skip the portion dealing with his observations
about the road conditions in Serrekunda since one writer whose name I can't
remember has already detailed it here in your paper. However he wanted me to
chip in this little piece since according to him, the writer generalized the
roads in Serrekunda. He would want the readers to know that even our once
good Kairaba Ave is dying a slow death. Among the roads that are in his
funeral diary are Latrikunda German heading towards S/Kunda market and even
up to Churchil's Town Shell petrol station. The so called Bundung Highway,
the whole of Sukuta road, BB road, and the strip joining Bambo to Bundung
(Jangjang road). His next port of call was at the Offices of the much
bragged about Gambia University. Pathetic what Yahya calls a university.
Parrot was surprise to see that the offices were caged in the same vicinity
with Book Production, an entity he used to know to be in Banjul. Part of the
MDI fence has been knocked down and it appears that some structure(s) are
about to be erected. Whatever they are, he has no idea. The office housing
IT department (Server(s)) to the University computers is crammed like a goat
house. The head there, a white man sounded more American than British. "Do
we not have enough competent Gambians to man this place?" Parrot asked me
during our conversation. "Boy, there is something you don't understand about
this our Gambia. We have all the skills and the technical know-how of any
field you can imagine but Oga is a bully and so most of the qualified people
would rather go private or work for private entities as there is no job
security working for the Gambia government. You could be a prince or queen
today and the next day you're reduced to a street beggar. Yahya takes pride
in firing people and I therefore see no reason why anyone would want to work
with him if they can get better paid jobs outside the government". The
offices of the defunct Independent Newspaper are as bushy as one can
imagine. All he saw there were empty chairs. "I am sure the security
personnel are sick and tired of sitting and just watching an empty building
for no just cause. It doesn't just make any sense spending our tax money on
people to carry out an unlawful job" he told me. "Hey boy, if you are going
to pay me to watch Baby Mohammeh's shoes, I will do it rather object and be
declared the next missing person. Who cares? All we are interested in here
is making our daily living bread" I told Parrot.
One evening, Parrot was on his way from Sukuta to the BB beach. However on
approaching the Bakoteh Estate vicinity, he could see a billow of smoke
emanating from the Manjai areas and making it across the estate and the
schools thereabout. He enquired from a lady who was sitting by his side
where the smoke was coming from? "Mbaalit" (the dump site) the lady told
him. He couldn't help it but asked the driver to drop him off there so he
could see things for himself. He stood there watching the refuse; part of
which was burning. He was almost choking to death from the poignant smell
and smoke emanating from this dump site. He could see men, children and
women squatting and scavenging through to see if they can find anything of
value that they can resell/recycle to earn a living. He quickly moved away
to the corner of the fence where he could avoid the poisonous smoke. He
stood there pondering in his mind. "How on earth can people cope with this
stench around this area? For how long will these people have to deal with
this? Are there any plans to move this site somewhere far away from living
areas? How safe are the kids going to those schools close to this area? Is
the NEA (National Environmental Agency) aware of this? These are questions
that came to his mind as he stood there shaking is head with bewilderment.
Gambia has reached a stage where kids and adults grope for survival from a
dump site!! And is this what Yahya calls development? Development for who?
"Boy the people here have complained and complained about there plight since
time immemorial but no one seems to listen or do anything. During elections
time, they are usually lied to and after elections; it is the same old
status quo. So all they are doing is suffering in silence" I explained to my
friend. Parrot told me that he felt so down trodden that he took a taxi and
went back home, locked himself in his room for the rest of that day. Stay
tuned for Parrot's s travel journal.
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Posted on Monday, February 11, 2008 (Archive on Friday, February 29, 2008)
Posted by PNMBAI Contributed by PNMBAI
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