True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance, As those move easiest who have learned to dance. - Alexander Pope

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Love is just not enough to make it work

By Tanta Badjan in Essays, Opinion, Business, Human Interest
Love is not the foundation on which a successful relationship is built upon, RESPECT and TRUST is. Love is the building that the foundation holds together for without RESPECT and TRUST to hold that love firmly, all you really have in a relationship is just an unhealthy (situation) waiting to fall apart. Yes love is beautiful and very necessary but NO, it is not the most important factor in a relationship.....why? Because if nothing else is there, no matter how great the love is, the relationship will not survive. Don't believe me? Look around you and really try to see why most marriages end in divorce. Is it really because the love is not there anymore? NO, it’s usually because of trust issues or the lack of respect for each other, or the over-stepping of boundaries.

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Mar 22, 2012

Red Black Nonsense - A Layman's Economy

Posted by lat | Tags: Lat's Thoughts , Essays, Gambia, Business, businessmen, Donald Knuth, Economist, food, Labor, MIX, Private, Punctuation, Quotation mark, non-English usage, Social Issues, tackle, Technology, Typography, World Bank | 0 Comments

I was comfortably seated with three beautiful young ladies over bowls of very delicious ebbeh the other day as i watched the growing traffic on Kairaba Avenue, when I noticed something rather peculiar. Two of them when they spoke had “strain veins” – I think they fall under the “varicose vein” category but medicine not being my profession, I’d go with the former. I have not spoken to myself in front of the mirror, so I am yet to confirm whether or not I have visible veins on my neck when I speak. However, before I lose myself in this piece which is certainly not about visible veins or beautiful women, or ebbeh – come to think of it, ebbeh might fall into place either way – something else happened which has happened to me so frequently over the last few months that it scares me to mush; A man old enough to be my father walked in with a young girl asking for alms.

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Some Thoughts on Gambia

By Amran Gaye in Essays, Gambia, Senegambia highway, Business, French West Africa, Human Interest, Islam, Islam in Senegal, Islamic mysticism, Mouride, Ousman Sembene, planner, Religion, Religion in The Gambia, Social Issues, Technology, War, Youssou Ndour

Just got back from Gambia, and I wanted to put my thoughts concerning the country down - they are still in a protean form, evolving as I come to understand the country more, so please bear with me.

 
I have always been fascinated by the myth of the prophet, the man who in his time lays the foundations of a new religion. I began first by reading about Serign Touba. His life: how at an early age he had an awakening, to the way of the Prophet Muhammed, setting out to learn as much about Islam as he could, at the feet of many a Sheikh in the region. I was struck by his ambition, and the depth of his vision. He established a village and ran it according to strict principles, his disciples working hard to gain baraka in the current world as currency in the afterlife. His chosen way - the way of Islam, the way of the Prophet - informing his every action and decision, and setting the structure for the new world order he attempted to create for his people.

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The Semester

By Lamin Darboe in Fiction, Mtv, America, Person Career, Indian store, Business, counsel, Department of Education, Ditto mark, energy, God, headmaster, Human Interest, Labor, New Yorker, Punctuation, Rapper, Social Issues, Sulay, Sulayman, teacher, Technology

 


He is a tall lanky guy in his mid twenties. His bushy eye lashes defined his big eye balls in a way that his friends - female friends of his age - always commented about them. He was full of energy and ambition and he always used it on anything he thought would improve his family’s condition. Although his full name is Sulayman, his mother was the only one who called him that. Everyone else called him Sulay. Like most of his friends he always dreamed of going to America where he believed life would be better for him. From what he heard and saw about America, he was convinced that he would be able to provide a better life for his family if he lived there. Sulay and his friends knew so much about America that you would think they were once there. They spent most of their time sitting on a long wooden bench in the shade of a mango tree at the gate of his home.

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Oct 26, 2011

The Bumster and the Toubab

Posted by amrangaye | Tags: Live From the Gambia, Fiction, Boy, Boy Ala, Africa, Person Career, Ban hotel, Alabama, Business, coo, food, LAN, Maggie, Modou Peh, nurse | 0 Comments

 

Modou Peh had a Toubab. He had acquired her quite by accident: going home one day empty-handed from the beach. She had stopped him, and asked for directions back to her hotel. Directions turned into a request to go with her where she was going, and then into spending the whole day - and that night - together. Now she was Modou Peh's toubab, and they trooped around town together, during the day, as he took her to the museum and the tourist market.
 
 
 
 
When they made love they did it with the lights on, for reasons she could not explain, even to herself. She had insisted on this, from the beginning. In her hotel room with the lights on they sat on the bed naked, his penis limp and hanging down. Her breasts sagged, and covered half her stomach, nipples long and drooping extended from them, white and old.

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Oct 01, 2011

Visiting Nigeria (A Scattered Travel Log)

Posted by Omonse Esangbedo | Tags: Yours Chimerically, Culture, Nigeria, Business, Entertainment, food, guard, T.Y.S.O.N., Technology | 0 Comments

The plane landed

I paused, inhaled and tried to feel like I was at home.

But I didn't.

The interesting thing about being away from a country for so long is that when you arrive, no matter how strongly you want to embrace the culture, people and everything else that comes with it, you still feel foreign. To be true to yourself, you would have to admit that the food tastes strange in your mouth, the smells catch you off guard and the surroundings have you spending short bursts of time just standing and staring to take it all in. It didn't help that the security man's face twisted into a retort as I handed him my passport. "Ah ah, what brings you to Nigeria?" "I'm here to see my dad.

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Letter From America

By Momodou Sabally in Our Readers, Atlanta, Banjul, Kataba, Lincoln, Washington DC, Coca Cola, Delta Airlines, Person Career, Georgia State University, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, Washington memorial I, Abraham Lincoln, American Enterprise Institute, Arch Angel Gabriel, Business, CENTURY AMERICANS, Dick Cheney, Dick Cheney, Entertainment, Environment, Georgia, Georgia State University, Government, Health, International Monetary Fund, Jay Leno, John Allen Muhammad, Lee Boyd Malvo, Maryland, olympics, Politics, Politics of the United States, Republican Party, War memorial

 

Jul 29, 2011

Election Season 2011

Posted by amrangaye | Tags: Live From the Gambia, Essays, Gambia, AIDS, Business, detective, Economic Community of West African States, Geography, International relations, Labor, Law, Political geography, Politics, Prince, Social Issues, T.Y.S.O.N., The Gambia | 0 Comments

 

It is election season again in Gambia. Once more the papers are filled with campaign accusations and counter-accusations, defections and threats and warnings, and endless promises. Camps are created, enemies branded, and bitter words exchanged.  For a while we will not be able to hear over the din, and then it will pass. 
 
The question in the air, the most important, on which everything depends: Are we better off now than we were before, or has our condition as a country worsened? Many things have changed, this is beyond dispute. Yet "nothing has happened", some people will have  you believe. All the supposed changes are merely fantasies. We are much worse off, the country has gone to the dogs. Or they will maintain use of the "previous regime" excuse. Yes, they will concede, there have been changes, but most of them are projects started in the previous regime, only completed by this one.

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Apr 24, 2011

World Malaria Day

Posted by imedicnomad | Tags: iMedicNomad, Opinion, The Global Fund, The Roll Back Malaria Partnership, Africa, Senegal, Person Career, African Malaria Network Trust, Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Biology, Business, Executive Director, forward, Global health, Health, Health Minister, Malaria, Malaria No More, Medicine, Private, professor, Social Issues, Technology, United Nations, United Nations Development Programme, World Bank, World Health Organization | 0 Comments

*I was planning to write an article about it, but this lady summed it up more eloquently than I ever could. She is the Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and Former Health Minister of Senegal, Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck. Here is her statement commemorating World Malaria Day*

A decade ago, far from public outcry or front-page headlines, malaria was killing 3,000 people every day, mainly African women and children. Few of the over 3 billion people at risk had access to mosquito nets or effective malaria drugs. Chloroquine, the main malaria drug, had become ineffective against malaria's deadliest strain, and the pipeline for new drugs, vaccines and other tools to control malaria was virtually empty.

(Today) April 25th is World Malaria Day. It is an opportunity to recognize the achievements of the last decade, since the moment when advocacy efforts shifted malaria from a neglected disease to global health priority.

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Mar 26, 2011

Red Lipstick & Shoulder Pads

Posted by Omonse Esangbedo | Tags: Yours Chimerically, Essays, Fashion, Anne Hathaway, Business, CDATA, Clothing, Cosmetics, Fashion, Jeans, Lipstick, Meryl Streep, Technology, Toiletry | 0 Comments

Lord and Lady Fashion have taken a long look in the rear-view mirror, revved up their black sedan and reversed, full speed into the the 80s and, upon slowing down, arrived at the 70s. As baggy bottoms become the cool for the lady, her boyfriend’s jeans are becoming skinnier by the second. The briefcase is the office fashonista’s favorite asset and the man-purse is taking softer edges instead of sharp, square ones. Women roll up their trousers today; men roll up their trousers even higher tomorrow. The platforms, the bright colors, the Coogi® sweaters (oh yes), the blazers, socks with heels, bowties, oxfords, et cetera, et cetera.

Recently I tried my very first visible lipstick - a pastel-esque pink color that my friend coerced me to wear. Apparently this was the act of stepping out the tight little box that I had imprisoned my fashion-forward inner child in, and I should have been proud of myself. For putting on lipstick.

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