MEET ME IN BAKAU

FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE DEATH of his brother in June last year, one of America's high profile singers in the 1960s Jermaine Jackson is putting up a major musical concert in The Gambia this Saturday at the Independence Stadium in Bakau.

All roads are leading to Gambia's main football venue where according to organisers thousands of fans will converge to enjoy the music by Jermaine Jackson who by all indications has been dormant for a relatively long period of time. His coming to The Gambia was made possible thanks to the personal intervention of President Jammeh who is giving Jermaine another unique opportunity to be resuscitate his music in The Gambia and Africa by extension.

Clearly, The Gambia also stand to gain some publicity during the course of his travels in the country and more so the timing of his musical concert in honour of his death brother Michael is well placed given the fact it has been his brother wish to stage a come back, something that never -to be.

In his interactions with the Gambian media, Jermaine Jackson has persistenly avoided talking about his late brother, the told journalists at the Banjul International Airport that he was still mourning and as such he has promised himself not to talk about Michael.


But whatever happens, Jermaine is expected to make history on Saturday when he appear on stage as part of an ambitious fund raising drive initiated by President Jammeh to contribute towards the development of worthy causes.

Already the Banjul International Airport has been inundated with visitors from different countries, LA actress Tchina Arnold known for her instrumental role in 'My name is Chris' Tv series descended on Banjul last evening. This is her first visit to The Gambia, and she's anxiously looking forward to finding out more about the country.

Portrait artist known for putting up a spectacular portrait of U.S President Barack Obama in the oval office at White House Chaz Guest is also in town for the second time in three months. Senegal's famous wrestler Yahya Jobe AKA Yekini told me last night that it was an honour to be invited by the President to come and grace his 45th birthday celebrations in a grand style.

PRIVACY AT LAST?

Hopefully you won't be receiving any more message from me about Facebook now that their founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has said it is making its website easier for users to decide what data they wish to share about themselves. He has acknowledged that a lot of people were 'upset' with them! However, I think users should still be careful what they post on their pages because even people, or should I say 'friends', are still able to share that information with their 'friends' without the user's permission. It is like a gossip site and, as we all know, as gossip gets passed on it can become completely distorted and lead to all sorts of unpleasant and sometimes dangerous consequences. I personally prefer to only contact my 'real' friends by e-mail, telephone or better still, face to face. I would rather see someone LOL (that dreaded text-speak!) at something I have said or smile at me than see it as an icon in a message. But then I am of the older generation so what do I know?!!

By Barbara Scott in UK!

Saving Fulabantang!

Fulabantang Village located in Central River Region is keeping itself busy trying to raise the much needed money as part of their counterpart contributions for clean drinking water.

Well it stands, the Fulabantang Youth Development Association is tasked with the responsibility of collecting contributions from natives of the village -home and abroad.


The message is meant to serve as a 'reminder' for members to pay up now to Momodou Mballow - call him on 00220 7267449/ 9998478/ 6507222. Non-members who are also interested in pushing the Fulabantang development agenda forward are also welcome. Write to us: keksil@yahoo.co.in/ chiefbaldeh@yahoo.com [ for more details].

A SPECIAL DAY: WHERE SHOULD I GO?

I must say today is a special day for me in many ways, firstly thousands of Gambians, diplomats, home and abroad are likely to converge on Kanilai this evening to take part in an international cultural festival.

The likes of America's legendary artist Jermaine Jackson is one of many international guests who will be at President Jammeh home village where the festival has been holding during the last five years.

On the other hand, today is suppose to be the opening of a festival that has opened up series of chapters regarding the mystical powers that they are capturing hearts and minds. The Malian hunters known for their mystical powers did not disappoint the crowd when they started firing their knowledge on shooting and disappearing.


Oh today, am showing my daughter that I care, at a time when she is celebrating her third birthday today: May 22nd. And then, we go football, where all eyes are fixed on Spain, not for the love of the country, rather the people going there are taking the trip just for the love of the game. And in case, it remains to be seen whether Bayern will continue to gather Trophies, or throw it away and allow Jose Mourinho to smile all the way to Milan beating his chest.

Watch out, but definitely I don't know where to go....?

'PROCEED WITH CAUTION' Barbara Scott warns facebook fans

In today's (May 22nd) Daily Mail there is yet again another article warning of the dangers of posting compromising messages on Facebook. They give instances where users have written derogatory comments about their employers, wives, husbands and partners thinking they are only able to be viewed by the people they want to see them. This apparently is not so.

Due to new policies that Facebook have introduced in 2009 the privacy policy now reads: 'Certain categories of information such as your name, profile photo, list of friends, pages you are a fan of, gender, geographic region and networks you belong to are considered publicly available to everyone (!!!!!!!). . . . and therefore do not have privacy settings. You can, however, limit the ability of others to find this information through search using your search privacy settings.' The reporter goes on to say that these privacy settings used to be private by default but they have become public by default and changing them has become more and more complicated. I am sure many users are unaware of this. The consequences of this are wide ranging. Jobs lost, marriages and relationships torn apart, personal information passed on to advertising agencies etc. Frightening isn't it. I believe Facebook is now trying to rectify this due to the public outcry this is causing. About time too.

I REST MY CASE!!

Locked

An old man once said to me, a society is identified by the kind of music it plays and the lyrics contained in those songs captures or summarises the mood of society, her people including her madness.

My childhood buddy put to me without hesistating that I have gone AWOL, and as a matter of fact, I have not updated or posted anything since 11th May, I need not tell him what I had done all these days. Music was actually keeping me busy all this while, criss crossing Banjul, Serrekunda and Kololi and tracking local musicians.

In one case, I veered off to a recording studio where I met Jalex, one of the country's rising and hottest revivalists - Young as he is, his mastery of the language is beyond discription But NOt like the kora maestro Jaliba Kuyateh who is the undisputed King of the kora.

Jalex:
I'm refering to a musician who has actually pierced through the homes of many Gambians, with the sound of afro manding, reminding anyone who knows, the cultural setting of the things Gambians are so passionate about. The Jamba Ndong for example is the dance of boys who are doing through the local initiation, Koyang as in my Fula tongue.

So Jalex made the most of the interview at Xalam studios, in some cases [playing] the drums and talking about that beautiful girl in that song, who? no one knows about that nameless girl so important to have a melodious song like Sunkutu Nyimma.

Next is Singhateh, he stole the limelight some years back, actually less than ten years ago when he dropped a video calling on two rival high schools to not only mend fences but to forget about the past and work together to develop the country. Those Schools are: Gambia High School and St. Augustines High, now he has grown through leaps and bounds trying to discover himself and his musical identity - SINGHATEH.

I also met music lovers - reggae fans and those who have been following the rise and fall, and the rise and rise of Gambian music.

Who controls you?

AM NOT SURE he put on this style on Sunday when Chelsea demolished Wigan to grab the EPL.
What ever happened, Chelsea and its former Manager Jose Mourinho has some unfinished business to trash out.

Angered by what others see as his principle of doing what he thinks is absolutely professional in the name of the beautiful game of football, after he abruptedly left Stamford Bridge. But there is more to it than meets the eye, Mourinho had already laid out a strategy for his new-found team, giving Chelsea what they never had in its chequered football history - a trophy and strings of achievements on the domestic, front thus raising the club's profile internationally.

Who on earth would not want to coach a team where you have Drogba, Kalou, Lampard, Malouda and Anelka? It was probably no longer a secret since Mourinho had made it abundantly clear that he made Chelsea what it is today, and that he will rip the team when ever he take over football management.

So he did! Chelsea's were shattered at home when the man who put together the team decided to take advantage of the weakness of the team to destroy Chelsea. Inter Milan beat Chelsea home and away, upping the pressure on Carlo Ancelloti to deliver and live up to expectations knowing full well that his job was on the line. Now he would like to grab the FA Cup , Guus Hiddink won last season. So when next you go to a video club, observe very well, and analyse what happened there.


What controls you is football, a good number of boys vying to ply their trade in Europe are mesmerised by the kind of football they see on Tv, their minds are being controlled by what they see on Tv, and those images are a language.


Some argue that the power of the media is something that should not be under estimated.