BY:MATHEW K JALLOW, CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Lamin seems to be mad at me for reasons I do not know. But, that is O.K. He has a right to voice his opinion, and to vent his rage towards me. My only concern is that he may be doing this in collusion with the rats in the Jammeh camp. If that is the case, I can assure him one thing; he will never succeed in shifting my focus from the things I feel are important to our country. Getting Jammeh the hell out of The Gambia and back to Casamance where he belongs is my ultimate objective. Lamin can open his big mouth and say whatever nonsense he wants to say, he will never distract me from goal.

MATHEW JALLOW, THE SON OF PEN AND MAN

OF WISDOM!!!

Secondly, his references to Sheriff Bojang's profile seems to suggest to that he has no idea what Sheriff wrote about me. Sheriff's profile of me was not negative, on the contrary, it was mostly a neutral tribute to all the things I have done in my life fighting for justice for myself and everyone else. Rather than being hostile to me, Sheriff instead fascinated by the story of my life. However, I will recap these major events and let the readers decide if I was guided by common sense or not.

In the late 1960s, as a student at St. Augustines High School, I organized a walkout strike at the Catholic Mission, Banjul where I lived with many other mission boys from Foni, Numi and other parts of the provinces. I decided to get every mission boy out and ask everyone to find somewhere else to live in Banjul. I did this because living conditions at Hagan Street were very harsh, the food was poor and there was hunger most of the time. Was this common sense or not?

A few years later at Yundum College, bad food and bad living conditions prompted some of us students to act. Myself, Habib Badjie, Lamin Jobarteh (diseased) and some others organized a strike and Yundum college was turned into a war zone. The principal was subsequently fired, and I left college and found work as a "bara nyini" to support myself. Was this common sense or nonsense?

In Oslo University in the 1970s, I joined every march the students organized to protest the Vietnam War and other social justice causes. However, my police record included head-butting somebody and knocking his front teeth out because he decided I and my two new student visitors from Nigeria and Tanzania would not enter the nightclub because we were black. I beat another white guy senseless because I found him bullying a teenager who did noting to him. Common Sense or nonsense?

Wadner Beach Hotel was treating its Gambian workers very inhumanely. The only Gambian worker Mr. Wadner respected and liked was Peter Jassey. I do not know if Mr. Jassey was feeding here bad info. about the rest, but when I got a job there, it soon became clear I had to do something. Everyone was unhappy, yet no one dared to complain. Not me. I soon went round to feel the pulse of the workers, and I knew they were ready to action. At the appointed time, I had asked everyone to stop work and meet me at the open bar, and they did.

 I laid down my conditions for Mr. Wadners and the hotel management. The tourists were applauding and supporting us. Later two guards were sent over to rough me up and they threw me out of the hotel. I lost my job there, but there were lots of changes for the remaining staff. That is exactly what I wanted. Common sense or nonsense.

Action Aid too was trying to play with our lives. At first when the program started in The Gambia, the primary activity was to build skills centers around the country, and enroll kids and teach them crafts like carpentry, knitting, blacksmiths, and growing vegetables and things of that nature. When I joined Action Aid, I looked at this and decided I was not going to let that continue any longer. Here we had potential doctors, scientists, journalists, educators, and the future of our country and all Action Aid's plan for them was to remain in the villages chasing donkeys and cows. Hell no. I brought this to the management, and we argued.

I put my foot down, and lucky for me we Sajo Jallow who turned to be just as radical as me. Every Action Aid soon changed from non-formal to formal education. Next, I wanted Sajo Jallow to be Action Aid's director because we had so many problems with the new director. We organized a strike which failed because stupid B.B. Darboe sent police to surround our offices. It was the Terri Kafo in action. Earlier, someone was brought to me to employ, and my boss said the guy was sent by B.B. Darboe, and I told him I did not care if God sent the guy, I was not going to employ him. Anyway, the strike failed and I and others lost our jobs. Common sense or nonsense?

Then came my encounter with Kenneth Best at the Daily Observer which mentioned in my interview a few days ago. I felt I was doing the right thing, and I still do. So Lamin, there you have it. My story is an open book. I will do everything over again. No regrets whatsoever. With regards to your charges of drunkenness, I am the first to admit that like President George W Bush, I drank a lot of alcohol before. However, I am lucky I never became an alcoholic like Bush did. Moreover, remember that Julbrew is not standing there for me alone. If you feel that way about my drinking, maybe if I tell you those who drank with me and are running your own government, you may want to migrate to the moon. You may be disappointed to know that it has been years since I last drank alcohol; and drinking will remain in my past.

You called me a tribalist: I don't know what the hell you are talking about. If I were, wouldn't I be supporting O.J. and Halifa who are both Fulas instead of Ousainou Darboe. Think man, think. You also mentioned the NRP constitution. I have told many people about my role in NRP. Before I came to the U.S, Hamat and myself were working on establishing a political party.

I looked at a draft document that Hamat gave me, and my responsibility was to look at it and improve on it. I was evidently going to be the brain of the Party since I was the one with the writing skills and the knowledge to be just that. I do not remember ever saying that I wrote the NRP constitution. In any case that is such a trivial matter.

Yes, you got that right. I dream big. I dream of kicking Jammeh out, so he can go back to Mayok, Casamance where he was born. I am dreaming right now, and get this I am as clean from alcohol as the day I was born. You don't like to hear that I know. But, there is a famous saying which I advice you to keep in you mind. It goes like this: "It is not how you begin that is important, it is how you end." I think I have done pretty well considering where and how I began; losing one job after another because I stood for justice; being homeless twice in my own country because I was too proud to kiss anyone's ass; going to prison and coming out intact; I was pushing push push to make ends meet and feed myself; I dug and sold gravel from the Bakoteh quarry to feed myself because no one would give me a job.

I understand suffering and I empathize with anyone in the predicament I was in at one time in my life. Now after all this, here I am dreaming big, dreaming of getting Jammeh to screw the hell out of our country. And Lamin get this; you may want to be my foot soldier some day, wouldn't you? Have a nice night, and pay attention to the devil in our backyard; Yahya Jammeh.