Dear editor,
Allow me to raise my concern as a citizen. I am appealing to the Government of the Gambia to citizen.
I am appealing to the government of the Gambia to quickly look into the basic food prices. Namely Rice, Sugar, Oil etc.
If you look in to this point, it’s very difficult for a Gambian civil servant to buy the three above mentioned items with your salary. Not I myself in particular but in general.
These are one of the reasons why Gambians consciously decided to vote out Jammeh’s Government because the prices of these items were not considered by Yahya Jammeh; just few people were enjoying, the rest were dying. Mr Editor, if you truly look in to these prices are so high compared to Gambia Government pay scale.
Bag of rice 1,150
Bag of sugar 1,500
20 liter cooking oil 1,100
Total amount is 3750 dalasi. If you minus this from any civil servant’s salary, nothing absolutely will be left with you.
So to the president: Gambian people over love you; we truly love you. These are the major concerns particularly of Sanyang and Camara kundas.
Mr President, before telling a hungry man to wash his hand just tell him to come and eat.
We are very proud of the president and we expect he will consider our concerns because it affects everyone. The prices of these items need to come down.
I am once again appealing to the president to consider this point and reduce the prices for the best interest of our people.
Nuha Touray
Staff, Judiciary
Accidents on our roads
Dear editor,
Last night [Sunday night], a young lady got knocked unconscious crossing the road at the Amsterdam junction in my neighborhood. She got rushed to the hospital and guess what happened when they got there. There was only one nurse in the A & E (Accident and Emergency) Unit. Not a single qualified medical doctor was present. This nurse who seemed to hate her job spent about 5 minutes wearing her gloves alone.
To add salt to injury, her supervisor suddenly appears from nowhere and says the patient/victim wouldn’t be ‘touched’ in the absence of a police officer. Could you imagine! Meanwhile, the patient was laying unconscious on a stretcher with broken legs and excessive bleeding in the head. Before the police could get to the hospital, the girl was pronounced dead. Just like that..! She could’ve been saved if the necessary measures were taken when she initially got to the ‘A&E’ Unit. Besides, what is the essence of having an A&E Unit when accidents can’t be treated as emergencies?
What is wrong with these nurses?! I still can’t wrap my head around how a human being could watch a fellow human die and do absolutely nothing about it, especially after you swore an oath to do exactly the opposite. This incident has rid me of the little confidence I had in our healthcare delivery system. I am sure there are numerous unreported similar scenarios. The million dollar question is: how much longer are we going to be living under such a climate of fear and uncertainty when our loved ones get down? The average Gambian cannot afford private medical care so this issue has to be looked into.
As expected, the driver at Amsterdam, a careless young man whose parents appear to have failed woefully in his up-bringing, was under the influence of alcohol or some contraband. He tried to run but lost control of the vehicle so he was forced to flee the scene on foot. A few hours later, out of sheer panic I’m guessing, he handed himself over to the police. The police, instead of doing their job (which I can’t tell them), decided to civilly handle the matter. That maybe because the driver’s father is a police commissioner. Do these people even have a conscience? Smh.
The young lady is gone and there’s nothing one can do about it. It’s a huge loss to her family which makes them the only losers in this equation. However, justice needs to be served. This will at least serve as some form of consolation to them and a warning to the rest of the young light-heads playing with cars on the highways. With this attitude and the maslaha-syndrome, The Gambia has a long way to go. A very long way. I still can’t believe that the case has been dropped even before the victim is laid to rest. That would’ve been totally acceptable if the driver was sober at the time of the hit-and-run. But under these circumstances, he must face the wrath of the law.
I would now like to present my sincere condolences to Kebs Bojang and his entire family. May the soul of the departed rest in perfect peace. This is a great loss to the entire neighborhood. Mama Sally was an embodiment of life itself. Cheerful, meek and always smiling. May Allah welcome her in the highest of Jannah in this Holy Month. Ameen..!
Now you understand why this is personal to me. My best friend’s 18 year-old sister was the victim. This issue with car accidents and police reports has to be looked into. We can’t keep losing our lives in the corridors of the A&E units unattended to. It’s completely unacceptable. Some of these medical practitioners need to do their jobs or find something else to do. Enough is enough!
Malima Ceesay
Bakoteh
