We apologize to our readers

Sidi M. Sanneh 

Last week, a brief interruption occured in our set-up here at sidisanneh.blogspot.com which led to de-linking the blog from our Facebook page which, in turn, denied many of our readers in Africa access to the blog who can only access it through Facebook.  We obviously did not think the decision through as we should have.  Our apologies.

Of course, when the decision was being taken, we had no clue that we were denying huge numbers of our esteemed and discerning readers - the Gambian youths - access to what has become the flagship of our operations.  We also heard from our lecturers, students and field officers in far-flung areas of the world.  To all we say "we hear you"

It was not until our announcement was posted and immediate reaction started pouring did we realize our error resulting from not only from our ignorance of the technology but also our failure to realize that internet access in other parts of the world is not anywhere near what is the norm in these parts. For that, we apologize to our readers.  We will continue to link the blog to our Facebook page.  My comments on the page will be limited to the mundane.  

We are glad that the interruption was short-lived the moment we realize our mistake.  Thanks to the swift reaction and feed-back we received from you.  Without dwelling too much on the reasons, we'd like to say that linking the blog to our Facebook page has its advantages but it also has its drawbacks.  But it our view that the benefits outweighs the costs and thus we intend to maintain the link but with minor modifications and some calibrations, including ridding our Facebook "Friends" list of some pseudonyms and fake names which will be an ongoing process.  Not all those who use pseudonyms are ill-intentioned or have ulterior motives but they have a built-in advantage of concealing their real identity which makes them less inhibited to lash out with reckless abandon - to borrow a favorite American sports parlance.

In as much as we'd like to have everyone as "friends" and to "like" our page, we'd also like to maintain a degree of civility and decorum that will provide the necessary environment to discuss matters of great concern to ordinary Gambians like whether the regime in Banjul has the money to buy the groundnut crop from desperately poor farmers.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to someone who goes by a pseudonym or fake identity is probably up to no good and likely to cause mischief.  We cannot eliminate the problem but we can, and will, try to minimize it by taking such characters off our list of "Friends".

Again, our primary aim and objective is to educate the Gambian population and he rest of the world about the current state of affairs in our country - The Gambia.  We will also fight misogynist tendencies creeping into the discuss.  Women have an equal or a higher role to play, even in our tradition societies at home than they are being accorded, despite the condescending statements thrown in after being called names.  Everything else is secondary for us here at sidisanneh.blogspot.com.

Thank you, and keep reading with our apologies, once more.  A household item here:  We will be observing our 2,000,000th views on Google+ in a few days, and it is all because of you - our esteemed and discerning readers. So, please celebrate with us.