By Ei Sun Oh
Over the last week I was in The Gambia (the country is, indeed, officially named with the definite article “The”) to attend a conference. The Gambia calls itself “the Smiling Coast of Africa.” This is mainly because, on the map, Africa can be seen as a silhouette of a human figure with a big head facing left. Situated at the far west of Africa, The Gambia is a “horizontal,” narrow strip of land that looks like the slightly open “mouth” of Africa’s “big head.” It can, with some imagination, be seen as a smile, hence the nickname.
But while a smile is a smile, efficiency is efficiency, and development is another matter altogether — there is no necessary connection among the three, at least not in The Gambia. This time, I was there for an important conference, so despite the long journey, I had to make the trip. I stayed two nights in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city (since flights to The Gambia are not daily), then flew via Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, a desert city where we did not disembark, and finally arrived in the Gambian capital Banjul at dusk.
The moment we landed, a special shuttle came to the tarmac to receive the conference participants, taking us to the VIP lounge. We were told that someone would assist with immigration clearance and collecting checked luggage. The wait, however, turned into almost three hours — likely the longest immigration process of my life. The staff were polite, and tea was served, but frankly efficiency left much to be desired. When I finally got to the hotel, instead of heading straight to my room, I rushed to the restaurant, hoping to catch some dinner. The restaurant was indeed open, but after ordering, I had to wait nearly another hour. It was almost midnight when I finally had what was essentially supper. Again, while the late opening hours were commendable, efficiency clearly needed improvement.
That said, efficiency issues are not unique to The Gambia; they are common across most developing countries. And The Gambia is not just any developing country — it is among the so-called Least Developed Countries, ranking near the lower end globally in terms of economic development. Its economy relies mainly on agriculture and tourism, with virtually no industry. Most daily necessities are imported. Agriculture is dominated by peanuts, which explains why one of the local specialties, domoda, is essentially a rich peanut stew with meat or vegetables — a dish I actually enjoyed.
As for tourism, the country resembles my home state of Sabah, with beautiful beaches, but almost no hotels run by international brands. It will take The Gambia considerable effort before it can catch up with destinations like Sabah or Bali. Even the restaurants that host foreign guests would need major upgrades. Unlike other African places I have visited in recent years, local cultural performances here emphasise soaring vocals and percussion rather than exuberant dancing, which I found refreshing and potentially a unique selling point.
The Gambia’s population is just over two million. Local languages are spoken in daily life, but since it was once a British colony, English is the official language, used in meetings and general communication. By contrast, neighboring Senegal, which entirely surrounds The Gambia except for the coast, was a French colony and thus uses French. To be frank, The Gambia needs an economic breakthrough to move upward. But with limited resources (no significant oil, gas, or minerals) and a small population base that makes large-scale industrialization difficult, its best bet may be tourism. For that, however, the country must be more proactive in promoting itself and in attracting international brands. Vision is crucial — life cannot be lived only by playing it safe.
A good example is Rwanda, a small Central African country I visited last year. After the tragedy of the genocide, it was reborn and became one of the continent’s fastest-rising nations. A smile is important, but if it can be translated into efficiency, then development may truly be within reach.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the United Nations General Assembly is holding its annual session in New York. I must admit that I still have a certain affection and bias toward the UN. The main reason is that a quarter of a century ago, I served for a period of time at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and I still feel nostalgic about it. I keenly remember my superior back then privately telling me that the UN’s efficiency could only ever be on par with its least efficient member states. After all, the international civil servants working there come from all over the world, including those very countries. And since people interact on such a high diplomatic level, they are usually very “polite,” rarely pointing out others’ incompetence directly. The result is that inefficiency is simply tolerated, even indulged, and over time everyone just gets used to this “getting by” mentality, making it very hard to demand improvement.
But US President Donald Trump is neither so patient nor so “polite.” Instead, he bluntly and openly denounced the UN, as was made abundantly clear in his recent speech at the annual opening of the UNGA — a speech that truly made waves. Before Trump’s speech, while he ascended the UN building, the escalator suddenly stopped midway, nearly causing him to fall — luckily the handrail was there. The White House suspected foul play, while the UN insisted it was a mere accident; each side had its own version. Then, during his speech, the teleprompter malfunctioned, forcing Trump to read from his paper script for more than 10 minutes until it was fixed. Of course, he did not stick strictly to the script; he went off-script several times to berate the UN again for what he called its poor treatment of him, citing those two mishaps as further proof.
In essence, Trump argued on two main fronts. First, he claimed the UN accomplishes very little. He boasted that in just over half a year in office, he had successfully mediated seven international disputes that could have escalated into war, while the UN was absent from all of them — showing its lack of initiative in promoting peace. Second, he accused the UN of supporting illegal immigration into Western countries, which he considered an outrageous violation of national sovereignty and tradition.
In short, in Trump’s eyes, the UN is utterly useless. And writing this now, I must admit it feels a little disheartening — at this rate, it may not be long before the US withdraws from the UN altogether.
