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| America at work |
The United States is not an easy place for middle-aged and old refugees and exilees. It is highly competitive and downright hostile environment where the social safety net has been substantially weakened and entry and being retained in it has become a challenge for many.
New arrivals to these shores are provided with six months of public assistance and after that you are on your own. If you are old and without much of an education, you are stuck.
The system is designed for the highly educated and the young who can use their physical strength for the menial jobs at the low end of the ladder. Even the young find it tough, much less folks my age. America is designed for the second generation American to prosper, and not the first generation.
It is, therefore, understandable for folks like Falai Baldeh and others to beg for mercy from Jammeh to return home. It is a personal choice and the inalienable right of everyone within these United States, regardless of their immigration status, to exercise it without being chastised or ridiculed. What they don't have the right to do is to continue polluting the airwaves with fake reconciliation talks by giving the impression that they have been mandated by Yaya Jammeh when they have no such authority.
Jammeh's "Face to Face" television interview with a UK-based television outlet is latest prove that we have been right on the reconciliation malarkey. Jammeh is belligerent, he is rude, he's uncouth and uncompromising and thus no appetite to talk much less reconcile with diaspora Gambians.
Therefore, we should each carry on with our individual or group agendas without interruption.
