'Don't come now?'

SNOWED IN!
Our contributor from London tells us that anyone coming to the United Kingdom should read her piece before taking the next available flight 'if you are lucky to get one'

Anyone visiting our shores at the moment might think they had caught the wrong plane (if they were lucky enough to get on one!) and had landed in the North Pole. For over two weeks now the UK has be experiencing the coldest and snowiest winter for over 30 years. Some areas are affected more than others but since last Wednesday (6th January) the whole of the British Isles is blanketed in snow. As you can imagine it has been wreaking havoc with the road and rail systems, not to mention the airports. Many roads are impassable in the Scottish Highlands and Northern England with people being stranded and having to abandon their cars. The temperatures have plummeted to -20 degrees in some parts which is colder than the South Pole! I am sure you are all well aware that the British like nothing better than to talk about, or rather complain about, the weather. Well we sure have something to talk about now!

Unlike some other European countries we are always unprepared for such extreme conditions. To be fair it is quite rare for such widespread bad weather to occur so it takes awhile for the reality to set in. Once we get over the shock I think, as a nation, we cope very well. You have heard of the famous British 'stiff upper lip' I am sure. It is now very evident albeit that it is mainly stiff with the cold. We have witnessed some real ingenuity regarding means of transport. Some people search out their skis which have previously only been used on visits to the Swiss Alps. Others don their mountain boots and risk the icey pavements to walk to work. There was even someone on the television the other day who is using huskies and a sledge!!

In the rural areas especially, anyone with a tractor or 4x4 suddenly becomes the most popular person in the village. There are many sad stories too. Some people take chances on frozen lakes and rivers only to find the ice is much thinner than they thought and pay the price with their lives and the lives of others who go to their rescue. Also our NHS is put under so much pressure because of accidents occuring on the slippery pathways and pavements. Many young people out and about in the evening enjoying the nightlife have ended up in the A&E departments of hospitals after falling over. It has to be said that they are usually the 'authors of their own misfortune', to coin a legal phrase, i.e. DRUNK! We have a term used to describe someone who has had too much to drink. We say that they are 'legless'. A very apt description if they are encased in plaster from thigh to ankle.

So, whilst you are seeking shelter from the mid-day sun and shielding your eyes from its glare, spare a thought for us poor Brits who, although enjoying beautiful scenes which take your breath away if you live like me in the country, are getting slightly fed up with the white stuff and all the havoc and inconvenience that it brings. There is a very old song which has a line in it that goes: "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow". I would like to change that to "Let it go, let it go, let it go"!

Barbara

Thinking of Living in England? Read on...

Thinking of Living in England? Read on . .
By our special correspondent from the UK




Being English, having had the benefit of a good education and being fortunate enough to be able to say that I have travelled to many places in the world it was very hard for me to understand what it must feel like for someone to come to this country of mine from The Gambia to start a new life which would be so very different from the one they had known.

I now have first hand experience of the problems and obstacles that this can bring especially for anyone who has never left their country before; to which English is a second language; who has very little knowledge of reading or writing but is full of optimism and ideas of leading a better life. So many Gambians that I have met are like this. Maybe some are better educated than others and are more likely to be aware of the fact that it is not as easy as they perceive it to be. Here are some of the problems that anyone contemplating coming here to live might find useful to know.

Having finally been granted a visa, for whatever reason, the first big experience for most will be their flight to the UK. Having flown many times I have to cast my mind back to my first flight over 40 years ago. I can remember finding it absolutely awe inspiring, if a little daunting. I really couldn’t get my head around the fact that I was thousands of feet above the earth and flying at speeds of hundreds of miles an hour yet I felt as if I wasn’t moving at all! I also was going to live in another country, another climate with a totally different culture but I would be living amongst people of my own nationality. How must it feel then for a Gambian arriving in England for the first time with maybe no-one around who speaks their language. Where everything surrounding them is alien and unfamiliar. The mere pace of life will confound them for a start. The speed with which we live our lives here compared to The Gambia is probably the first thing they will notice. The size of the buildings, the fast roads, the shops, the lights, the large supermarkets where people pile their shopping trolleys high with a month’s supply of goods at a time, the COST of everything. The fact that no-one speaks to strangers. The transport system. The complex rules and regulations of everything from getting a National Insurance card to applying for a job, or if you are self-employed, registering to become so.

If they are lucky they will have someone with them who will help steer them through all these things. They will need all the help they can get. Like everywhere else in the world at the moment the recession has been biting deep and finding a job is not easy. Anyone coming here expecting to find the dream job with dream pay to go with it will be sorely disappointed. Also, if they are thinking the state will provide them with money if they don’t get a job that also isn’t as easy as they think. If they are lucky enough to find employment they will also find that they will probably be on the minimum wage and by the time income tax and national insurance contributions are taken out they will have very little left. Rents are high, the cost of living rises from month to month and so their disposable income is almost non-existent. As most Gambians, like many other nationalities that come here, are expected to help their families out by sending them money, they will find it hard to manage without a great deal of support from those that have sponsored them. These sponsors are themselves probably struggling to cope, so will not take too kindly on having to support someone who is sending money back to their homeland. As for their religion, well unless they live in a big city or somewhere near one, they won’t always find it easy to attend a mosque regularly. They have to hope that whoever they are staying with will respect their beliefs and afford them the time and space to pray when they need to. Not everyone coming here will be in a community which is used to seeing people from different cultures. England isn’t just London, Manchester, Leeds or Bristol!! So even finding food which suits them might be difficult.
The other point worth mentioning is bad advice given by people who have perhaps come here to live for the wrong reasons. They may be the type who flouts the rules and tries to 'work the system', especially the rules on benefit claims. We have plenty of our own countrymen who do this and sadly get away with it. It is a great cause for concern for our Government and also the vast majority of law abiding citizens who are trying to keep OFF benefits and find work. It creates tensions and bad feelings. It has to be said that most legal immigrants are hard working and willing to do the most menial of jobs rather than be supported by the state and therefor the British taxpayer. Listen to advice by all means but don't believe everything that you are told. There are many myths around that are totally misleading and could get you into a lot of trouble. Our immigration laws certainly appear to be very lax and there are far too many illegal immigrants in this country. They should never have been allowed to slip through the net but there has been so much anger over this that the Government is tightening up the laws and making it harder for people to gain visas in the first place. There are also plans to implement stricter rules about gaining British Citizenship which enables immigrants to hold a British Passport and all the benefits that this brings. It will take much longer and cost a lot more, so only the people that are genuinely interested in becoming a citizen will pursue this. Hopefully this may deter those who enter into marriages of convenience in order to gain the right to citizenship.
Does this sound depressing and negative? Well it is not meant to be. Undoubtedly anyone coming here should be able to adjust providing they are open minded and willing to compromise. Their lives in some ways will definitely be better and if they are prepared to do any kind of job, they will probably be able to make enough money to improve the lives of their families back home. However, this comes at a price. The price probably being loneliness and homesickness. They will have to change their laid back way of thinking which may be OK in The Gambia but sadly does not fit in to the English way of life. Oh if only it did. Why do you think so many people enjoy visiting your country for their holidays or in some cases making it their home? Most English people would love to live life more simply but apart from a few isolated areas, it just isn’t possible anymore. Our country is so over populated and life here so hectic that the ‘living for today’ mentality just doesn’t work. There are lots of things that are very good about living in England and so much to see and do. The opportunities for learning and the access to knowledge is there to be taken if that is what you want but it doesn’t come to you. You have to seek it out. So even if your education has been limited or even non-existent you can improve yourself providing you get the right guidance and help. I hope anyone contemplating living here has someone who will be able to give them that. Good luck.

A LETTER FROM LONDON

One of our new contributors from London Barbara has written another letter stating some of her admiration for a certain journalist in the UK and issues focusing on how emigrants especially from Africa quickly settle down in London.

Here is the full text of her unedited letter:
I would be honoured to contribute to the blog. I love writing and hope that I can find things to write about that would be of interest to your readers. I would, of course, be respectful of your wishes not to be 'controversial'. I am fully aware that these blogs are open to all sorts of people so I am mindful of the consequences of things like libel. There is one subject that I am pretty fond of and that is how people from your country settle in when they come to the UK. I have, as you know, first hand knowledge of how difficult it can be for those of different cultures and religions to handle living in a land that is so different from their own. I would not like to personalise anything I wrote for obvious reasons but I have been writing a journal and some of the things I have observed might be of interest to those who read the blog who are thinking, or should I say hoping, to come here to live and work. I wouldn't want to be identified so just keeping me as 'Barbara' will do! Do you think this is the sort of thing you would be interested in? I could perhaps send a small piece to demonstrate a) my ability to write and b) whether anyone would give a damn! I do have a rather English sense of humour so maybe this would be misunderstood. Anyway, let me know. I also have a question. I am an avid reader of newspapers, The Daily Mail in particular. One of my favourite journalists is Melanie Phillips who writes very frankly on her views of Britain today. She wrote a piece yesterday (4th Jan) which I am sure you would be interested in. I have taken a cutting from it and was going to scan it into my computer and send it to you but I am not sure about the copyright laws on this. If you want to read it I am sure you will be able to find it on the Daily Mail website. The bit that interested me most was about the work ethic of immigrants coming to our country from different cultures and how it puts British workers to shame.

I shall await your comments.

Regards
Barbara

Publisher/Editor Comments

Barbara I'd like to congratulate you for contributing to our blog which is out to exchange ideas about current issues that affect our lives. Well regarding your opinion on the way emigrants adapt to the environment they found themselves, its quite amazing, but I think it has to do with individual, that is that [person's] readiness to 'belong' to the system. As the saying goes, when you go to Rome, do as the Romans. When next you write please send us photos, am sure some of our members would like to see them published.

EBRIMA BALDEH

TIME FLIES

Time flies, of course you can say that again and again, last year at this time some of us who were in India for the Development Journalism course were waiting in calm anticipation for our travel date.

Thats why during the last days before our return to our respective countries, I could not help but sit in our famous computer lab and posed for the camera. I did it with my colleagues from Nepal and The Gambia, I took the photo, knowing full well that at some point in my life, I would probably look at it and comment on it, just like the way I'm looking from this prism.

It was my Tanzanian colleague Barasa whose new year's message reminded me how far time had flown, and the changes he has noticed since his return from Delhi. He need not elaborate as I understand full well how frustrating it can be for some one who has gone for a relatively short time abroad on studies, only to come back and encounter series of challenges, sometimes tough choices you have to decide swifly. In this case, like the way my GRTS colleague did, Barasa left his newspaper for a telecoms company in Tanzania, only that Pierre Sylva went to the Gambia's electricity and water company, where he's doing PR jobs.

So for me this time of the year was truly a moment to reflect on, as I have noticed marked differences in my life, I know some of you have similar things to present.

Happening Now in Banjul

It was a night to remember on Thursday, leaving the office to do what some members of the media fratenity call 'last minute' checks on the areas we hope to bring on air for the greater part of the night, running into the early hours of the new year.

ON my way, around Sink Corner, I saw a number of boys standing waiting for lift to Banjul, the capital city, I was rushing to tune up with the OB van...

Well now, it's like The Gambia and the other countries around the sub region are still waiting in calm anticipation for 2010. THE main attraction points for hundreds of Gambians tonite are the Musical Jamboree at the July 22nd Square in Banjul, the Senegambia area - the heart of the tourism development area and other places like Bakau and Brikama.

For now all roads are leading to these areas, save for me who's still in the office, writing....

NEW YEAR, NEW PLANS, OLD PROBLEMS

THE WHOLE WORLD SEEMS to waiting in calm anticipation for what the new year hope to bring. While others are hoping to change jobs or go abroad and search for better opportunities elsewhere, there are others who are working relentless to fight for what they think is right.

For example, in Nigeria, the new year is expected to see the country grapple with political challenges - at a time when the country's President is 'sick' and hospitalised abroad, and then the long and protracted issue of Mutallib, the alleged mastermind of the Christmas day plot against a U.S airline bound for Detroit.

Ordinary Nigerians will begin to ask themselves why and those answers might be difficult depending on the different circumstances facing the problem. Being one of the biggest countries on the continent, Nigeria to some of us living at this side of the globe, see the country as a 'big brother' in terms of the support and hospitality they rendered to small nations such as Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Guinea etc, but paradoxically, it is one of those countries where some of the biggest scandals take place. Yesterday, it was vote rigging, and mismanagement at the banks, today it is about a would-be suicide bomber who by all indications is from a decent family.

The new year plans for Nigeria would probably be different from Guinea Conakry where the West African state is also going through a systematic political crisis after the death of Lansana Conteh who ruled Conakry for more than two decades. His death prompted Capt. Mousa Dadis Camara and his colleagues to take over peacefully, and all was relatively well until September 28th 2009 when gun-wielding soldiers allegedly sprayed bullets on a crowd of protestors during a political rally held at the Conakry stadium. Like Nigeria, Guinea too has so many things to do in the new year. With Dadis out of the country nursing his wounds at a hospital in Morroco after a failed attempt on life by one of his aides.

Coming back to The Gambia, for those of us in the media, we hope to change the way we have been doing or simply put improve on what we've been doing so that we will continue to deliver and live up to expectation. We hope who ever is reading this piece will also change the way he or she has been doing things and improve better, and pray that God the Almighty will continue to shower his blessings on us all, to witness the new year in peace. We hope that people will not judge us wrongly just like it is stated in the bible: 'Judge not, otherwise you will be judged.'

Thank you, and happy 2010.

Barbara reacts to our story

Writing from the United Kingdom, a concerned reader beleives the future generation may never forgive us for being careless with what we call cultural heritage. Having visited a number of monuments and places of historical significance in India, I know full well what our letter writer Barbara is talking about. She's reacting to the sorry state of the so-called Slave House in Janjang Bureh, in the Central River Region of The Gambia.

'I do so agree. Here in the UK we have a very strong heritage culture. Some may say it is not worth it but it so is! I recently visited Malta, where I used to live many, many years ago and was so pleased to see that they too are developing their historical buildings and helping to preserve the island's great and varied history. Afterall what are we but the inheritors of our ancestry however grim and violent this may have been. If we forget from where and whence we came, how are the future generations going to learn anything from it. I wish you luck with your campaign.'

Barbara