Minutes after the conclusion of a meeting between Italy and The Gambian government. Our attention-obsessed Minister Mai Fatty eager to take credit and pump his ego ran to his favorite platform Facebook to prowl and scout applause from his often naïve, unsuspecting and lowbrow fans. In doing so, he fail to acknowledge the President or at-least allow his to take credit as it is customary in any government. When the Seal Team 6 kill Bin Laden they didn’t run to Twitter or Facebook neither did their Commanders. No! They understand the chain of command just like you should that the President is the Commander-in-Chief and head of the Executive-Branch in your case. As such, he deserves the privilege to be the face of such important news but don’t tell that to inerudite Mai Fatty.

But that wasn’t the end of his cardinal-sin, in a hurry to run his mouth he made a claim that I regretfully have to call a blatant lie. Just so no one confuse the fact that he “Mai Fatty” deserve the acclaim and only him, he said “The gift was from Italy’s Interior Ministry” quietly making a correlation since he is Gambia’s Interior Minister. Such a farce, what a character this guy is smh lol.

I don’t know the details of the deal but the claim that the gift is from Italy’s Interior Ministry stands out, because that is not how we understand Interior Ministries to operate anywhere in the world. Interior Ministries do not conduct foreign relations and their budget doesn’t include foreign-aid, I thought Mai Fatty would know this.

Last year I wrote an article titled “Half-Truth are Lies” and talked about how half-truth can be as deadly as total-lies. Mai Fatty has mastered the art of not telling the whole truth thereby giving impressions that might be deceiving just to advance his PR agenda. Let me give you an examples; remember how Mai claimed that he has signed a deal for the building of a $48 million Forensic-Lab only to change his story after we found out it was actually a Clinical Lab that performs Diagnosis and Research in Molecular Medicine, the forensic crime aspect of it was actually a small component of this project. Which makes sense, because Gambian does not have the crime-rate to warrant a $48 Million Forensic-Lab even if it was for free but you won’t have that impression when you listen to cretinous Mai Fatty.

Here we are again with the same half-truth from Mai. Don’t get me wrong it very possible that Italy’s Interior Minister was allowed to hangover the gifts that might be actually coming from the State Dept (Foreign Affairs) etc, governments does this all the times. Just because he handed over the Welfare-Check doesn’t mean it came from Italy’s Interior Ministry. Nice try!

Some of you might be like, but Intellectual-Bug this is not a big deal it was a just a small lie. If someone is capable of telling a small lie they're capable of telling a bigger, more consequential lie and remember we're entrusting these guys with our country at it's most vulnerable time.

That brings me to my last point. Who is Mai Fatty accountable to? It seems he is working in solo with no coordination with the President/Sectary-General’s office or any of the other government institutions and that say a lot about the dysfunction and structural problem within this administration. They are just not jelling, there is a serious leadership vacuum and people like Mai Fatty are taking advantage of this environment to hike their stock. My advice to Mai Fatty “Stop it,” please just stop it. If you work hard we will see it, you don't have to convince us. You might be older but some of us are more educated, more battle-tested in any areas, be it Governance, Economics or Int'l Affairs. Quit selling us Crap, please!
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By: Rik Osborne (Posted on Quora, great read)

“If you sit home playing video games all day, you won't meet anyone.”

I was 49 years old, and had never been married. In fact, I had barely dated as an adult. I’d had one relationship, when I was 23–24 years old, that lasted 18 months, and another when I was 36 that lasted six months. And after that, I just never had much interest in trying to find romance and love. I took the position, “if it happens, it happens”.

So, living alone in an apartment, at 49 years old, I spent most of my time alone, playing World of Warcraft, when I wasn’t at work. Work and WoW, that was my life.

So on Christmas Eve, 2015, I was sitting alone in my apartment, playing WoW, and enjoying a bottle of nice single-malt scotch I’d bought as a Christmas present to myself. At some point in the evening, I wandered downstairs to my kitchen, and as I was entering the kitchen, I noticed for the first time a small, patched section on the wall. I was curious about it. You see, my apartment building was built some time before World War 2. I had already figured out that, when the building was new, it was heated by some kind of furnace in the basement, with all of the apartments sharing the heat. I figured that this small, square, patched-over spot must have originally been some kind of vent that allowed the air to move between apartments. My curiosity prompted me to knock on it.

Somebody knocked back.

So I knocked again, and heard more knocks in return. Then I heard a woman’s voice through the wall yelling, “Hey, come over here!”

I was … a bit surprised. But I shrugged and went over there.

I met my neighbor for the first time. We spent the rest of Christmas Eve together. Then we spent Christmas together. And the next day. And the next, and the next. She had a big TV, but no cable, so she could only use it to watch DVDs. I set her TV up with my WiFi password so that she could use my Netflix account. I spent most evenings in her apartment, watching shows on Netflix with her.

In March 2016, she moved into my apartment, and toward the end of April, we got married.

I was playing video games instead of looking for love, but love found me :)


JollofNerds: Beautiful story and we thought we would share it with you. At JollofNerds we cerebrate all love stories and we wish all our readers the best in their love life and we pray that you find that person who makes you happy.
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Is everything alright in the UDP fraternity? This is no hyperbole, something is brewing!

After the National Assembly elections, Papa Lawyer Darboe drop a new tune in the Mandingo language, it goes like this: “Yee-ye-ye-ye Lawyer Darboe ye banko tar,” translated “Yee-ye-ye-ye Lawyer Darboe has taken over the country.” Many people thought the song was inappropriate for various reason, one of which is instead of recognizing Barrow’s leadership in lifting the party at its lowest point and leading it to victory plus all the sacrifices made along the way. Lawyer Darboe chooses to personalize the victory and reserved all the credit for himself for a victory he probably had very little to do with. As you can imagine this didn’t help his image and selfish reputation but the Old-man couldn’t help himself.

There has been lot of talk recently whether Barrow should serve 3 years as agreed in the coalition-memorandum or should he ignore/betray the agreement and force the 5 years constitutional term? The question no one is asking; who benefits the least if Barrow forces a 5 years term or extend his stay?

Well, I can tell you right now, there is an Old-man shitting in a corner, scrunching his face and screaming “Not Fair.” Our favorite old-man Papa Lawyer Darboe is destine to be the next president, Gambia is a one-party state at this point, sadly UDP has position itself as the sole beneficiary of the post Jammeh era and I do not see any other party reclaiming the crown for the next 30 years. It’s the fact. Now here comes the trouble, is Barrow going to make Papa Lawyer Darboe wait longer than he has to and how do you think that idea is sitting with the old-man?

It looks like this is going to be war, my prediction unfortunately our favorite Old-man is going to lose. Here is the thing, while UDP is enjoying the expanding size of their party the new comers have less loyalty to the party and more to Barrow as an individual and the rest of the new-comers are just gold-diggers. The voters who help topple Jammeh’s government mostly in their teens and early twenties do not have any significant memories of Darboe and sadly his old age doesn’t help. Barrow is closer to their age, he is younger and cuter and most importantly they see Barrow as the guy who saved them not Darboe and that’s a powerful image in their head.

The UDP old-guards see Barrow differently, while they like him, they see him nothing but someone there only to warm the car for the ultimate driver. Their loyalty is to the Old-man and it’s unshakeable, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen when Barrow exceed his welcome and decides to stay for 5 years or more.

Going by his recent interviews, it looks like Barrow is going to stay longer than even 5 years. I can say for certain Barrow is going nowhere anytime soon, the presidency is getting into his head, and he is loving the attention and the power that comes with it. How long is Lawyer Darboe willing to tolerate him is anyone's guess. We shall see. My advice, brace yourself for the unthinkable. “3 years or 5 years, I’ll do whatever the Gambian people want me to do” is what Barrow said in a recent interview. Let me translate it to you; it means “I am not leaving, I’ll serve the whole 5 years.” This is Barrow’s civilize way of saying “go screw yourself.”

African presidents are cursed, they do not have it in themselves to share power. Democracy is just a convenience, they use the word whenever it suits their needs. It becomes worst when you give someone a role they do not deserve or qualify for, they would not want to give it back. We see the same thing happen when Jammeh found himself in a role he was neither qualify nor expected. Anyways, that’s not the end of this stories, think about it if Barrow can force his way into serving 5 years what will stops him from shaking another 5 years? All of this at the detriment of Papa Lawyer Darboe, I feel bad for the Old-man, I love him.

My fear is the fall-out between these two colleagues will be ugly. Power corrupts, Presidents are jealous, they do not want to share the crown and Darboe is circling that crown like an eagle. Once the Banjul Socialites start getting close to the president and constantly reminding him how Darboe is trying to take his Job that would be the end of Lawyer Darboe. I just hope he doesn’t sent him back to where he rescued him from.

Anyways, I have no bone to pick in this fight. My Fula friends say “Mburru fof ko faringe.” As a none-UDP, Independent observer I don’t care who wins, the petty-side of me is looking forward to the fight though and can't wait for the blows to start flying lol. You bet I would put flame to the fire while hypocritically chuckling on the side. Nothing beats a UDP fight, lol.
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