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Reactions of Traditional Healer

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:24:38 GMT

Friday, September 19, 2008

“I feel great happiness and contentment about the current wave of recognition of African traditional medicine and that the biggest world body on health, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is celebrating it and encouraging government for its inclusion in national health plans.

Such collaboration between Western and Traditional medicine, I can say, has been long overdue if we consider the fruitful results and immense benefits that can and should flow from it. So I congratulate the WHO and all those willing to give support and partnership to this medical and health endeavour.

This is good news because it will soon be discovered that whereas conventional medicine takes effect after a long period, most traditional African treatment take a relatively much shorter time or even three days. How this works, is what I hope we can all begin to discover together. In traditional medicine, we can find genuine and effective remedies for diabetes, ulcer, piles, hypertension, reproductive problems and many more. And all cures are workable within a short period of days. Research is also good to keep everyone up to date and for application purposes.

We should however not forget in this partnership the importance of Preventive medicine. We should watch the things we eat or drink. These should be clean, hygienic and healthy in every way. They should also be well prepared. In the same way things that enter our bodies through the body’s openings should be watched. The air we breathe through the nostrils should not be polluted, contaminated and full of germs. We should avoid taking in through the nose any harmful substances, e.g. sniffing cocaine and other harmful products. We should avoid introducing through our skins things like needles for injecting in harmful drugs. We should not take in cigarette smoke or marijuana though the mouth. We should guard strictly against taking in sexually transmitted diseases such as syphillis, gonorrhea, and HIV/AIDS. This is the importance of prevention. As the saying goes, ‘Prevention is better than cure’ .My tradition also advocates strongly to prevent rather than later fight to cure a disease. Some of this prevention can also be avoided by regular exercise and avoiding unhealthy life-styles.

One of the things we lack is material and equipment we need to facilitate our work. For example, we cannot gauge the recovery rate of our diabetes patients. We always have to send them to a hospital for tests. I am sure this is one area in which traditional medicine can benefit in the proposed partnership of traditional and conventional health practitioners.

At times, there is need to keep a patient for a few days for treatment and observation. But we have no accommodation facilities or the appropriate feeding required. We need collaborative discussions and support in this area. Then we shall be able to achieve the type of ‘Synergy’ envisaged by the WHO and national governments.

In the PeoplesRepublic of China, India, and some other Asian countries, there are great big hospitals devoted to traditional medicine only. African countries should aspire to have similar facilities for the greater benefit of our populations for whom life expectancy is still comparatively low.

I wish to commend the WHO and our own Department of State for Health for promoting and spear-heading this programme”. Meanwhile Wagne could be reach on 7048814

Source: Picture: Serigne Momodou Wagne

“Proud To Play For The Gambia” - OJ Koroma

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:17:31 GMT

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Thursday, September 04, 2008

The young Gambian teenager Omar Koroma, has expressed his happiness and readiness to play at senior national level after receiving a call to come and play for his homeland in the 2010 World and African cup of nations qualifiers.

OJ Koroma, who has just registered his name in the history of the English league after been the first Gambian to be signed by an English Premiership club, Portsmouth and loaned to the English championship team Norwich City. He is expected to make his first appearance for The Gambia on Saturday.

The young lad could not hide his readiness to play for his country while speaking to Pointsports after being called to play by the senior national Team Coach Paul Put.

He said, “I feel proud to play for The Gambia and I think that’s what every body is looking for, to be part of your national team.” He said that he was very happy to sign for Portsmouth and will be looking to be in the Premiership. “I want to play in the Premiership and as the coach said I am young and need to adopt the system of the Premiership so I am working very hard to be part of the team next season.” According to OJ, “I have been trying to play in the Premiership for Southampton for two years it did not work but I have been trying and working very hard and it finally come through.” He then thanked all his fans and everybody in The Gambia for their support.

Meanwhile Cherno Samba, Tijan Jaiteh, Ngogu Demba, have finally joined the team in camp and all players will be training to impress Coach Paul Put.

Pointsports has been reliably informed that four foreign players Pa Saikou Kujabi, Abdou Jammeh alias T-boy, Aziz Corr Nyang and Lamin Conateh arrived yesterday and took part in the training session last evening at the Independence Stadium in Bakau.

Author: By Ebou Manneh

Source: Pictures: O J Koroma (1) and Cherno Samba (2)

Scout association rejoices at president’s birthday

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:59:08 GMT

Thursday, July 10, 2008

The Gambia Scout Association has extended a goodwill message to President Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, on his birthday anniversary, expressing warm wishes and happiness.

"We share the joy and blessings of the celebration and pray that Almighty Allah continues to guide, bless and protect you, your family and the nation at large."

"The association rejoices with you not in the number of years you live, but rather in your achievements and the quality of your leadership and relationship with others, which has brought so much success, joy and hope to the lives of Gambians," the message continued.

"As chief scout, you continue to be a source of inspiration to scouts all over the world due to your exemplary leadership qualities. We are proud to be associated with you and congratulate you on the successes registered in the cure of human scourges such as HIV/AIDS, asthma and barrenness, etc," the message added.

The association then prayed to the Almighty Allah to shower His blessings on the Gambian leader and his family. "And may He continue to give you strength and wisdom to steer the affairs of this country for the next generation," the message concluded.

Author: DO

A gifted leader

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:48:38 GMT

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Editor,

Allow me space in your reputable paper to express my happiness and as well to extend my gratitude to the Gambian leader President Dr Alhaji Yahya Jammeh for providing the cure for HIV/AIDS. The picture we saw over GRTS of healthy looking young men and women who have been cured of the deadful desease calls for another thanksgiving.

President Jammeh is indeed a unique leader. We Gambians are lucky to have him as our President. He is not only giving us the enabling environment to ensure sustainable socio-economic development but also generously offering us his gifted know-how to cure Gambians of the deadly deseases such as HIV/AIDS, Asthma, hypertension, diabetics andinfertility.

Recently the Gambian leader also promised to cure more deseases which is yet to strat but i am very soon.We Gambians should consider ourselves lucky to have a leader like President Jammeh not only is he expected to carry out the State functions but also to care and cure people with these debilitating deseases. I therefore call on all Gambians to give their unflinching support to this gifted leader. It is interesting to note that he does not say this patients is UDP or APRC but instead he cures all.

I take this opportunity to congratulate President Jammeh on behalf of Gambians people. Thanks your Excellency.

Borry Njie

Pirang

Author: DO

Big Read: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. I HAVE A DREAM

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 05:06:50 GMT

Monday, March 31, 2008

Speech at the "March on Washington DC" in 1963

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five-score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. (President Abraham Lincoln). This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free; one hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination; one hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity; one hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. (In 2007, many say the situation for the African-American is worse - in "the richest country in the world" where 30 million of its citizens live in poverty).

So we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check (to demand the equality guaranteed to every American). When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was the promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. (Although some middle-class blacks have indeed "cashed" their "check" the vast majority still wait in 2007 – including those in the penal system where it is said that the blacks who make up only 20% of the population make up 80% of the prison population; where President George Bush’s Texas is the biggest legal executor with virtually all Death Row prisoners there being African-American).

And so we've come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy; now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice; now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood; now is the time to make justice a reality for all God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the movement. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content, will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. (The revolt today, 2007, has turned inward, with the drugs, gangs, guns and illiteracy destroying Black America). But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice.

In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. ("rightful place" have not been granted or gained for the vast majority in 2007).

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. (Yes, if you come from a comfortable middle-class home as King does this is easy to say. Your children are not growing-up in ghettoes and alleyways where drugs and killings are the order of the day).

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. This offense we share mounted to storm the battlements of injustice must be carried forth by a biracial army. We cannot walk alone. (In "Black Nationalism" below Malcolm argues that, on the contrary, we must "walk alone" and do it ourselves).

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. ("Police brutality" continues in America, Britain, France etc, against black citizens in 2007).

We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. (An achievement in 2007 – except possibly in Texas!)

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one (for the majority of the "Negroes" that is still the case).

We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

(Say it again MLK: "Nothing for which to vote". They have now tied up the system of so-called "Democracy" in such a way as to nullify the vote they have given to the Negro: President Bush’s two shameful elections, where Black Votes were discounted, is a case in point in the New Millennium. Turn in your grave MLK).

No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of excessive trials and tribulation. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. (i.e. turn the other cheek – Malcolm says "No" firmly, below).

Go back to Mississippi; go back to Alabama; go back to Louisiana; go back to the slums and ghettos of the northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can, and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. (But remember that the white Americans who wrote these words did not "turn the other cheek" – they picked up the gun and fought England for it, thousands dying in the process).

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith we will be able to hear out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to go to jail together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

"My country 'tis of thee; sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride; from every mountain side, let freedom ring"

If America is to be a great nation, this must become true. (It is true, MLK bro, for those who wrote the national anthem!)

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that.

Let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants - will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

'Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last.' "

Author: DO

Lovelines: Without love relationship is a pain

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:23:01 GMT

Friday, February 29, 2008

How lonely are you during the Val? Loneliness is not a foreign word or thing to some matured guys and gals but, still to some that can not differentiate between their happy and sad moment when it come to love. You may have all that it take to be rich or all riches, pleasures with great capacity and bliss but within you, there is always the lurking shadow of been alone, which is loneliness.

Both the rich and the poor man who’s struggling, worshiper and non-worshiper all know what is loneliness. So when you are in the state of loneliness, what does your mind do? Can you tell? Your mind will start to think, imagine and develop high tension.

At that time many things will touch your mind like to turn on the radio or put in your favorite music, which you will not followed the lyrics or the beating, picking up a book for reading, try to work but all these will be done without concentration. Is it that I lie? Then try to observe your own loneliness. Because when the mind is aware of is own loneliness, it will run away and try to escape if it doesn’t want to be harmed.

So how do you escape from it? Take this for escape, whether into religious contemplation or going to a film house, all are exactly the same it is still an escape. But some men will decide to escape through alcohol.

Therefore a man that escapes through drinking is no more better than a man that remains in loneliness because soon or later he will be free from the hang over of the alcohol. So if there is no escape and struggle into the opposite, then the mind tends to condemn it according to the frame of its knowledge, but if there is no condemnation, then the whole attitude of the mind towards the thing it has called lovely has undergone a complete change. Yes or no?

Since loneliness is a state of isolation then the mind will enclose itself and do away from every relationship and anything to do with love and consensual sex while jealousy and imagination jealousy will crept in. At that stage the mind has known loneliness.

Do you know that loneliness can undergo transformation? Yes it can, when the mind refuse to create escape then that loneliness will undergo transformation and then become aloneness. It does not matter the world you use for the sake of grammarian. So there is no fear.

The mind that feels lonely because it has isolated itself though various activities is afraid of that loneliness. But if there awareness in which there is no choice, which means no condemnation-then the mind is no longer lonely but it is in a state of loneliness which there is no corruption, no process of self-enclosure. One must be alone, there must be that aloneness, in that sense loneliness is a state of frustration, aloneness is not, and aloneness is not the opposite of loneliness.

So, most of us are lonely, all our activities are the activities of frustration. The happy man is not a lonely man. Happiness is alone, and the action of aloneness is entirely different from the activities of loneliness.

We are trying to understand the problem of marriage, in which is implied sexual relationship, love, companionship, communion, obviously if there is no love, marriage becomes a disgrace, does it not? Then it becomes more gratification.

To love is one of the most difficult things, is it not? Love can come into being; it can exist only when the self is absent. Without love, relationship is a pain; however gratifying, or superficial leads to boredom, routine habit with all its implications. Then, sexual problems become all important. So, in considering marriage, whether it is necessary or not, one must first comprehend love.

Author: Yunus S. Saliu

Congratulations and best wishes on Tobaski

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:38:32 GMT

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Congratulations and best wishes to all Muslims and all members of the Islamic brotherhood in The Gambia, on this great feast of Tobaski.

Your devotion to family life, to family prayer, to discipline, to the care of the sick and elderly, and your support for one another is unique.

The courtesy, the kindness, the welcome and the charity of Muslims is not found anywhere else in the world.

We again wish you every happiness on your feast day and we will join with you in your celebrations. Inshallah.

Father Seamus Fleming

Ireland

Author: DO