Gainako Newspaper

......A NEW AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
...................-Yahya Jammeh’s Therapeutics
...........................................By Peter Jallow........................Posted January 24th, 2007

The declaration by the president of the Gambia Yahya Jammeh to have solved the Aids enigma should be
not only be hailed as a historic medical breakthrough but also as a call to actions for all of Gambians to
believed in ourselves. It should be recognized that the aids epidemic that is decimating Africa, kills roughly
over 6000 people a day, millions every year. This data is staggering considering that Africa alone accounts
for over 50% of HIV/AIDS infections compared to the rest of the world. Although great lip service has
been paid to this crisis in the past but there is always a lack serious commitment. Even the pledges made
the donor countries eventually got bogged down into so much red tape that the intended recipients never
really receives it and even if they do at times it’s too late.

The assertion that the billion dollar pharmaceuticals are working hard to solve the aids crisis is a myth. It is
not in the strategic interest of the West to solve this epidemic with such urgency for after all this disease is
generally contained in most western countries. AIDS today is really a developing countries problem.
Another fact one needs to remember is with over three billion people living on this planet, the competition
of resources is already to the breaking point. Hence this scourge is seen in some quarters as another way
of population control. Although no one would admit to this for it will be seen as morally reprehensible.
However the statistics speaks for itself. What is happening in Africa is what I called passive complicity or
indifference. The industrialize nations seems to allow the Malthusian theories to play out. For the brunt of
this disease is faced in Africa where countries like Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa are facing an
aids crisis of biblical proportions. The human toll in these countries is staggering with millions of
AFRICANS projected to die the next couple of years.

We should all be proud that Yahya Jammeh dare to hold this Aids beast by the horn and for once without
fear of ridicule and in the presence of the whole declared it dead (at least metaphorically) proclaiming for
the first time by an African –an African leader to have found the CURE. Further more we should all as
Africans rally behind him and support this great millennial breakthrough. For after all we are biggest victims
of this scourge and it is appropriated that a solution can emerge within our midst.

A solution uniquely African is perhaps the answer to this whole aids problem. The industrialized countries
with the multi-national corporation control the pharmaceutical industry whose primary goal is profit. The
price of aids drugs are so expensive that African countries cannot afford this life saving drugs especially in
the volume needed to stem this tide. Even where cheaper alternatives (generics) are available as the case in
India and Brazil the industrial nations are not so easily accommodating. Matter of fact Brazil has to
consider the aids epidemic as a national security issue hence invoking its right to employed what ever
means to stop it. Africa countries who are generally poor, underdeveloped, and in most cases lack the
necessary structure to study less develop any kind of HIV/AIDS aids formula. Face with this crisis
President Jammeh’s alternative could be the answer.

JAMMEH'S THERAPEUTICS
........Another Chapter in the Realm of the Absurd
................By Our Special Editor......... ..........................Posted January 23rd, 2007
The declaration by the Gambian head of State Yahya Jammeh to offer clinical treatment
to patients afflicted with HIV/AIDS and Asthma at the Royal Victoria Hospital last week
though shocking to many is certainly by no means the first nor the last great outburst of
this presidency. What is so striking about this announcement carried by the entire media
outlet in the Gambia is the presence of Gambia's health minister, representatives from the
Cuban Government, (whose doctors are an integral resource in the Gambia's poor health sector) and
members of the Taiwanese Government.

The president's not only made the announcement but also claims the secret of his remedy is divinely given
to him and as such defies rational explanation. This supposedly is a combination of the Koran and herbal
medicines. He went further to administer a clinic at the hospital dispensing his brand of therapeutics to
some patients guaranteeing cures for their ailments. This is all done in the presence of the Gambia's medical
establishment without any objections.

To understand this claim amongst many by the Gambian president is to understand Gambian history. This is
a country were superstitious is still part of the national psyche Here the sacred and profane are intertwined
and the people though may professed modernism and a belief in a single monolithic religion still exhibits
vestige and practices of these past beliefs. Even the educated elite who are supposedly enlightened still
believe in the powers of these occult. It is normal to see an enlightened Gambian practicing these occult
beliefs while publicly professing to be a Muslim or Christian. President Jammeh being a product of this
environment not only believes in these but has becomes increasingly adept at using this psychology to his
advantage.

A Case in point a trip to Kanilai in the early years of the coup the "Miracles of The Bees" was performed
under the glare of the television cameras for the whole country to see and witness. At the cultural festival
his demonstrate his invincibility to small antiquated arms fire by showing that any gun pointed at him will not
even cocked let alone fire. When concerned were raised about feasibility and viability of some the
ambitious project the regime embarks upon, Jammeh responds by claiming that he has access the "GOD's
bank" and this resource is infinite. All these acts and proclamations made at the national stage is meant to
convince a gullible populace of his divinity and built an aura of invincibility and reverence around him. This
new act is simply another in the furtherance of this goal.

We are all witness to the fact that the man's dress code has metamorphosed into all white now, a reflection
of purity, the working stick, meant to symbolized majesty. The Koran in his hand meant to symbolized
reverence. Even the history of the July 22nd coup has been rewritten by Jammeh relegating all his
co-conspirators into fervent disciples. In fact he has become the new superman in the Gambia. Still what is
disturbing is the gullibility of some well educated, well meaning Gambians who would tell you that the Man
"Has great Powers" and still talk in mundane terms. The HIV/AIDS enigma that has baffled the whole
world for decades, a problem that the pharmaceutical industry spent billions of dollars, a problem that the
world's best minds are working hard to decipher has been suddenly solved by Yahya Jammeh. Perhaps
every Gambian should shout Eureka! Eureka! To our modern day Hippocrates.

This is certainly the sad state of affairs the Gambia has been reduced to after a decade of Jammeh's rule.
Dissent has been quashed, and the era of the personality cult is increasingly manifested. The rulers every
word has become gospel and the failure of the Gambia's intelligentsia, religious leaders, community leaders,
private individuals (especially those within the country) to challenges this dangerous irrationality has
contributed immensely to this state of affairs. All these coupled with a landslide victory in September at the
polls has further convinced Jammeh and his followers about the certainty of his invincibility. The Gambia is
now a country where everything is about Yahya Jammeh were the courts, the police, sports, economy
even the arts functions under his patronage. This is the madness that has engulfed this country.

However there is solace in the realization that all these absurd claims made by Jammeh can never become
a substitute for good governance and the country's health care problem cannot be improved by resorting to
the occult sciences or any other science that defy rational explanation. History is a bound with great
examples of leaders who exhibit these illogical characteristics. In the end what this latest act does, is like
the "Al-hamdu Lillahi Project" before it simply bound to fail.

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