The GPA has now sanctioned the display of waste bins on the ferries which is a brilliant idea, please keep it up.

However, some of these bins are without lids and I cannot fathom that bit of it as what can an invoice of D5000 for all bins requirements do to an organization such as the GPA. The money is not a problem so I see no justification tom supply the ferries with bins that are devoid of lids.

Aside that, the cleanliness on the ferries has improved tremendously but there is still a big room for improvement as we still see and encounter rubbish, waste and dirt that could be avoided but nay it is still there. The other day on my weekly trek to Chamen Kerr Bai Dam the ferry we boarded was very dirty and need some deep sweep but the cleaners did not do a good job the night before. The GPA needs to come into grips with their cleaners. Remember, the ports and the ferries may be the first port of call a many a visitor to our shore and a clean efficient ferry will give a very good impression of our country.

Health and safety on Barra ferry

There is a serious and alive health and safety risk inherent on the Barra Ferry. There is a big unbridged gap on the ferry between the stirs and the generator room on the ferry.

People could be mistakenly pushed off board by a stampede or unnoticing normal pull and push within the ferry for embarking or disembarking. The GPA must act fast and now to prevent someone being accidentally tip or push off board. The metal workers and welder men should come on board and fix it on both sides of the ferry before someone losses their life. This opening on the ferry deck could even be more serious when darkness fell and people get preoccupied with life issues not taking into consideration a dodgy ferry rim that could cost you your life.

Njilan Fye, founder and organiser of the Miss Gambia USA beauty pageant, last Wednesday, donated learning materials to the Sajuka Lower Basic School in Barra, North Bank Region. This generous donation is estimated at $500.

Speaking at the occasion, Miss Fye said she started the beauty pageant two years ago with the aim of raising funds to sponsor needy  students at Sajuka Nursery and Lower Basic School. She added that the Miss Gambia USA Pageant is her personal company with the vibrant slogan: ‘‘Crown a Queen, educate a child.“

‘‘I am currently sponsoring five students and I will continue to add the same number of students every year. Charity begins at home and that is why I decided to start with Sajuka Lower Basic in Barra.

This is a way for me to contribute my quota to the development of the country,” she said. Miss Fye, who was accompanied by Fatoumatta Touray, the crowned Miss Gambia USA and a native of Balangarr Village,  thanked her parents and stakeholders who  are helping  her to  educate Gambian children.

Kola Bahoum, acting director of Sajuka Nursery and Lower Basic School who gave a brief history of the school said the Sajuka school was established in 1984 with the aim of educating children and young people in Barra and its satellite villages.

Mr Bahoum added that the school, since its inception has recorded significant achievements ranging from the establishment of a nursery, primary and a vocational training school. He expressed delight and commended Njilan Fye for creating opportunities for children to have access to education. In a similar vein, Kenbugot Faye,  Alkalo of Barra, thanked his granddaughter for the initiative .

The Principal of Scanaid Secondary School at Brufut has refuted allegations for imposing high fees on students, calling it bogus, untrue, and an unrealistic propaganda.

Mrs Mariama Baldeh, Principal of the Scanaid Senior Secondary School at Brufut has called on the authorities to check on the activities of Muhammed Lamin Marr’s NGO who was bent on fabricating stories in his interest. Mr Marr, she said was made their PTA’s chairman after the previous one left for studies about two months ago.

Mr Marr the Director of Save the Youth Action Group, was said to have brought the idea of introducing his group to the school. It was later studied and accepted. Mrs Baldeh said his clandestine activities started from this point. She said Marr brought nine children who were not qualified but were accepted. “He brought two bounced cheque that caused me embarrassment at the bank. Mr Marr himself confirmed this. He has been instigating children to do the wrong thing.” Mrs Baldeh further said that Marr had paid in Eleven thousand calling it Twelve thousand Dalasis, which he accepted was a mistake.

Mrs Mariama Baldeh said Mrs Adekunle a teacher enforcing the school’s law on fees in her class, was confronted by Marr in front of the children. He had almost caused chaos during the opening of the Science Block when he said, “Madame, if you are not careful, I will deal with your teachers and create chaos in this school if anybody tries to play down on my group.”

Mrs Baldeh compared the following fees to theirs : Ndow’s Comprehensive Senior,D1,850, Glory Baptist D2,900,Ros Kali D2,300, Archdeacon George D2200, Maahad Senior D2,100, Core Comprehensive D2,500, Methodist Academy D2,950, SOS D2200.

According to Mrs Baldeh, her school fees are only D1,200 and D300 for their extra classes per term. She stated, “Our children are supplied with a pair of school uniforms, necktie, school magazine, ID card, are fed twice in a week, text books, and have free access to computers. They pay their own fees.”

“In a recent PTA meeting, Mr Marr was relieved of his post as PTA chairman of Scanaid Senior School, by the PTA body including the Alkalo of Brufut,” Mrs Baldeh revealed.

Reliance Financial Services Company Limited has laid a foundation stone in Barra to construct a branch to meet the banking and funding needs of small and medium-scale entrepreneurs and businesses in Lower Nuimi and the whole of North Bank region.

Delivering the keynote address on the occasion, which took place on Friday, the Chief of Barra, Alhaji Taborah Manneh, gave a brief history of Barra, saying that the town was a business centre.

He added that Reliance has made a great achievement by establishing a bank in Barra.

“Reliance is a financial institution established by Gambians who are experts in financial business,” the Chief said. “These great sons of The Gambia have Gambians at heart. They want to contribute in the socio-economic development of the Gambian people.”

He added that even low-income earners could bank with Reliance, as the bank’s opening balance or deposit starts as low as D100.

“Reliance does not discriminate between the rich and the poor, that is why when you bank with Reliance, if you save D100 and want D300 loan you can get it; or if you save D1,000 and want D3,000 loan you can get it,” he explained.

He thanked the management of Reliance for establishing a branch in Barra and urged the people of NBD to come out in their large numbers to bank with Reliance for a brighter future.

In his speech on the occasion, the CEO of Reliance, Mr Baboucarr Khan, said Reliance are very proud of the people of Barra and the surrounding villages.

He said Reliance has come to help the people of NBD to properly manage their financial status and redeem themselves from abject poverty.

He advised the people of NBD to bank with Reliance. “ I have the hope that you will come in your large numbers to open accounts with Reliance as soon as possible,” he said, adding that once the construction of the bank is completed Reliance will commence full operation in the area.

The Manager of Reliance, Mr Ismaila Faal, who moderated the occasion, said that while they will be constructing the branch, they plan to set up a banking kiosk to keep financial transactions running.

Other speakers on the occasion included Hon. Cherno Cham, National Assembly Member for Lower Nuimi, and Mr Mamadou Marr, the Deputy Governor of NBD.

Kids tend to find singing very amusing and never miss a chance to show off their singing talent. For some kids, the desire to sing does not wear off by getting older.
In some cases, it grows even stronger and it becomes a passion they wish to pursue as adults. In this case, singing becomes a bit more challenging. It's one thing to make singing mistakes as a kid and quite different to become embarrassed in a karaoke contest. In fact, many people give up singing as adults, simply because they are afraid of the harsh criticism they may get.

If you can identify with the above situation, you'll certainly be glad to know that you can, in fact, learn how to sing properly, every time. Sure, good genes are factor if you want to become a star, but anyone can learn how to sing impressively well if they devote the time and energy required to master the technique. Hence, the most important step you need to take, is to decide if you are really determined to learn how to sing and everything else will follow with studying and practice.

You will have noticed that the word "studying" was mentioned in the above paragraph, along with practice. You see, in order to sing properly, you definitely need to learn some of the principles of voice production. Singing is a highly physical activity and professional singers know that. That's why they seem to be singing with their entire body rather than just their vocal chords. Pro singers can manipulate three types of singing voices, which are usually common to all people. The chest voice, the middle voice and the head voice.

The chest voice is the voice you use when you speak. With this voice, you can create a rich, full-bodies sound. The head voice is usually used for higher pitched notes, most frequently by female vocal artists. The middle voice acts somewhat like a bridge between the chest voice and the head voice. You can think of these different singing voices as the ABC of singing. Only after you've studied and learned your ABC does it make sense to practice. And if you practice with some solid guidelines in mind, be sure that you can learn how to sing correctly, every time!

Reliance Financial Services, a major financial intermediary in The Gambia that is out to help small businesses grow, has hit the bull’s eye again. It has also opened a new financial services kiosk at the Serrekunda Market to render effective and efficient services to its burgeoning Market Customers in Serrekunda.

The new liquid development initiative introduced by Reliance is called ‘Deposits for Development’.

The Deposits for Development scheme offers socially responsible Gambian companies, both for profit and not for profit alike as well as high net-worth individuals, the opportunity to invest in Fixed Deposits at Reliance.

“These funds are then used to finance small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs in sectors of their preference for priority intervention by Reliance,” said Reliance’s CEO Baboucarr Khan at the launching of the new product on Wednesday at the Reliance Head Office on Kairaba Avenue.

“The Deposit for Development scheme may be used to extend credit to particular projects, communities or causes based on the expressed wishes of the client concerned,” he said, adding that the choice of investment will be limited to a list ratified by Reliance.

Mr. Khan stated that the new initiative would attract socially responsible investments, create opportunity for competitive financial returns to the stakeholders, influence economic agenda, as well as bring out positive social impact and tangible, visible results.

The mode of operations, Mr. Khan explained, would be a minimum deposit account of D0.25 million, a minimum period of three months, option to choose a cause to finance, and graded scale awards of cumulative nature.

The awards include Bronze Award for Deposits under one million dalasis, Silver Award for deposits between one million dalasis and five million dalasis, Gold Award for deposits between five million dalasis and ten million dalasis, Platinum Award for deposits above ten million dalasis, Certificate of Deposit, and a displayable Certificate of Recognition as Partner in Development.

“In addition, every new subscriber to the Deposits for Development Scheme [DfD] will be listed in our quarterly newsletter and all new and existing Development Partners will be included in our Annual Reports,” Mr. Khan said.

According to CEO Khan, the new products would offer reasonable interest returns and positive social impact to customers. It would also raise the publicity profile of the institution in the selected community, increase customer loyalty, and help the customers meet their corporate social responsibility objectives, he added.

He further said the benefits the DfD would create for The Gambia and its people include support to Government and other development role-players in improving the quality of life of the people of The Gambia through the funding of entrepreneurship projects; accelerate the sustainable reduction of poverty and restoring dignity, and promote broad-based economic growth and nationwide economic integration.

One of the burning questions regarding the new product is “How do I know that our funds will be used towards development?” To this, CEO Khan responds aptly: “Reliance will provide detailed information on sector lending as well as testimonials from clients who have benefited from this scheme.”

Almost all the heads and representatives of institutions at the DfD launch raised pertinent questions and concerns regarding the product. But Mr. Khan and his team at Reliance were able to do justice to some of the questions and concerns, and others were reserved for detailed discourse with the would-be depositors.

Meanwhile, the Gambia Ports Authority has declared their intention to cooperate or do business with Reliance.

From small beginnings come great things, they say. This proverb has been put in motion at the Serrekunda Market where Reliance yesterday opened a new banking services kiosk to meet the financial transaction needs of its clients at the Serekunda market and its environs.

“I have the singular honour and privilege of being invited as the Chief Guest of Honour at the official inauguration of the First kiosk deployed by Reliance Financial Services Company Limited here in the heart of the Serrekunda Market,” said the new Mayor of the Kanifing municipality, Hon. Alieu Momar Njie, who cut the ribbon to officially open the new financial services kiosk.

“The deployment of this innovative Kiosk is a phenomenal milestone in the way banking services are delivered to the people of The Gambia,” Mayor Njie added Professionals and heads of institutions attended the occasion which attracted hundreds of market women and men in Serrekunda. The dancing and drumming with songs and speeches of appraisal for Reliance by the market women was the talk of day and for days un end by the stakeholders.

A good beginning is the half the work and Reliance will today precede to Barra for another inauguration.

New chip gives gamers more speed

BOSTON (04/09/2007) - Intel Corp. is launching a quad-core chip for desktop gamers on Monday, continuing a barrage of new products the company has announced in the past week.

The Core 2 Extreme QX6800 runs at 2.93GHz, the fastest speed yet of the 12 designs of quad-core processors the company has launched since it announced the "Clovertown" Xeon server chip in November. That speed makes the chip a good fit for gamers and digital designers, the company said.

Multi-core chips can speed up computers that run multi-threaded software, dividing large jobs into several parallel parts. Until now, that software has been available mostly for server applications, but software developers have announced an increasing number of multi-threaded games, including Supreme Commander from Gas Powered Games Corp. and Hellgate London from Flagship Studios. Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to join that group later this month when it releases a multi-threaded version of its venerable Flight Simulator.

The new chip will also reduce waiting time for high-definition media editing jobs such as video encoding, said Eric Kim, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Home Group, in a statement.

Intel has unveiled a range of new products in recent weeks as the company keeps pressure on chip-making rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD is scheduled to launch a quad-core chip design by the middle of 2007 with the "Barcelona" Opteron server chip.

On Thursday, Intel launched two low-power versions of its Core 2 Duo processor, the U7600 and U7500 chips, aimed at products like Gateway Inc.'s E-100M ultraportable PC, due to hit stores on May 3. On Wednesday, Intel announced a plan to merge aspects of its vPro IT management package into its pending "Santa Rosa" Centrino notebook platform, due to reach markets in June. And on Tuesday, Intel launched two quad-core processors for high-end embedded applications.

Justice Akomaye Agim announced yesterday that he will deliver his judgment in the court martial case of the ten accused plotters of the March 21st coup attempt on Thursday April 19, 2007.

Justice Akomaye Agim is the presiding judge for the case. He made his announcement at the Yundum Military Barracks yesterday, after nearly six months of intensive court martial proceedings.

The ten accused persons are; Captain Bunja Darboe, Captain Yaya Darboe, Captain Wassa Camara, 2nd Lieutenant Pharing Sanyang, Captain Abdou Karim Jah, Captain Pierre John Mendy, Lieutenant Momodou Alieu Bah, Corporal Samba Bah, Lance Corporal Babu Janha and Private Alagie Nying.

The defence team has also filed a motion for the return of properties belonging to the ten accused persons. Justice Akomaye Agim thanked the defence team for their cooperation during the proceedings of the court martial.

Justice Akomaye Agim, presiding Judge in the on-going trial at the Court Martial in Yundum Military Barracks, has told Lawyer Camara, one of the defence counsel in the trial that the court will not allow or entertain any form of adjournment as far as address by the defence counsel is concerned.

Justice Agim made these remarks in response to an application for an adjournment made by Lamin Camara, counsel for the 1st accused person- Captain Bunja Darboe, 5th accused person, Captain Abdoukarim Jah and 6th accused person, Captain Pierre Mendy in order to enable him to adequately and perfectly prepare his address to the court, with regards to his clients, in connection with their alleged involvement in March, 21 2006, foiled coup plot .

In his application for an adjournment, Lamin Camara noted that, he needs adequate time to prepare his address to the court for submission. He told the court that the bulk of the work has been done and is only left with a little time in order to wrap it up.

According to him, the nature of the charge sheet as filed against his clients are very serious for it‘s a criminal case, and therefore, has to adequately represent them in every sense of legal litigation.

But, Justice Agim said that no further adjournment with regards to the defense’s submission of address to the court will be entertained again as the proceedings of the court has to continue.

He said the court has given adequate time to both the prosecution and the defence counsel for the submission of their addresses. At that juncture, he adjourned the case to April,10 2007.