{"id":23516,"date":"2022-11-02T20:46:46","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T20:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/criticizing-the-government"},"modified":"2022-11-02T21:11:01","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T21:11:01","slug":"criticizing-the-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/criticizing-the-government","title":{"rendered":"Criticizing the government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>There are a few prevailing thoughts within Gambia\u2019s civil and public service officials, and especially among those in high positions and their minions, that those of us who criticize them are one, jealous of them or two, that the critics have nothing to offer besides criticizing or three, that the critics don\u2019t understand how things work in government.<\/p>\n

I take the argument that critics are jealous of government workers to be infantile thoughts maintained by extremely insecure persons with a twisted notion of entitlement and a pitiful understanding of who they really are. There\u2019s a reason government workers have \u201cservant\u201d in their nomenclature but apparently, many who make this \u201cjealous\u201d claim are clueless on the meaning of the word \u201cservice\u201d and what it means.<\/p>\n

For those who simply settle for the \u201cthe critics are jealous\u201d defense when citizens criticize them, you can\u2019t help but feel sorry for them. If a civil or public servant doesn\u2019t have a twisted sense of civil or public service, why would people they are supposedly working for be jealous of them? Jealousy purports that you have something that others are envious of. In this case, that would be the privileges that civil and public servants give themselves and make the people pay for. If you think people are jealous of privileges that you took from those that you claim to be serving, doesn\u2019t that indicate a serious misunderstanding of what constitutes service to the people. Must our notion of service to the people revolve around how we stand to benefit as individuals! Do civil and public servants (from the president on down), realize that it is those they call jealous that actually feed, clothe and house them? Now I\u2019m not saying some of those who criticize you aren\u2019t simply waiting to take your places but you cannot use that brush to silence all of us. I for one, have no interest, whatsoever, to work in this government at any level whatsoever! So you have nothing I should be jealous of!<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s take a look at the ones that regurgitate this claptrap that if you criticize the government, you must also offer them solutions! You often hear this from public and civil servants that pretend to accommodate criticism. The problem is, they try to establish parameters around what constitutes criticism and what doesn\u2019t. In reality, they hate criticism but try to hide behind the \u201cdon\u2019t only criticize, offer solutions\u201d claim knowing very well they are not remotely interested in your solutions. They don\u2019t say it in public but many of them actually see you as an enemy the moment you criticize the government! That I can attest to!<\/p>\n

Here is the thing: Citizens don\u2019t owe any civil or public servant a solution because they criticized them. The thought that because someone identifies a problem, they must have a solution is very simpleminded. Anyone can tell you that the first step to solving a problem begins with identifying the problem! As a citizen, if I identify the problem for you, for instance that corruption is rife in the government, it\u2019s your job as a civil or public servant to seek solutions! I\u2019m not the one getting paid to better people\u2019s lives! That\u2019s you. I am not the servant (public or civil), you are the servant! You find the solutions for the people. I did my part by identifying a problem. Anything else from me will be a \u201cbunya\u201d I don\u2019t owe you.<\/p>\n

Lastly, another line that some of our servants employ when citizens who pay them complain is to claim, \u201cyou don\u2019t know how things work.\u201d Personally, I thank the ancestors for not knowing how things \u201cwork\u201d because when I look around, I don\u2019t see ANYTHING that\u2019s actually working in The Gambia as it should! You hear this \u201cyou don\u2019t know how things work\u201d excuse from the most condescending public servants who think they are the devil\u2019s gift to Gambia. The rest of us are just too stupid to understand anything about the intricacies or technicalities of how anything work. They don\u2019t understand that we don\u2019t need any technical knowledge to know that ordering untested medication into the country is a terrible idea. We don\u2019t need any technical knowledge to know that we have terrible roads. We don\u2019t need any specialized knowledge to know that our hospitals are in terrible shape. If you as a civil or public servant think that us the citizens are too stupid to understand how things do not work, is that the people\u2019s fault or those of you assigned to make things work?<\/p>\n

Here is the reality. If you\u2019re a civil or public servant (including the president and his ministers), it means you work for the people; and your role is to better the lives of those you work for (that is the people). The people are paying you to live a better life than them, be respectful enough to stomach their criticism. You don\u2019t have to like what they say about you. If you don\u2019t like being criticized by the people, then stop claiming to work for the people! But if you continue working for the people, they have all rights to criticize you all day because at the end of the day, they pay, clothe, feed and pay for your health. You should be grateful!<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. There are a few prevailing thoughts within Gambia\u2019s civil and public service officials, and especially among those in high positions and their minions, that those of us who criticize them are one, jealous of them or two, that the critics have nothing to offer besides criticizing or three, that the critics don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,2366],"tags":[2355,2361,8802,260,2565],"class_list":["post-23516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-criticizing","tag-gambia","tag-government-2"],"yoast_head":"\nCriticizing the government - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are a few prevailing thoughts within Gambia\u2019s civil and public service officials, and especially among those in hi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/criticizing-the-government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Criticizing the government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are a few prevailing thoughts within Gambia\u2019s civil and public service officials, and especially among those in hi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/criticizing-the-government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-02T20:46:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-02T21:11:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-6362dcc5103d3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"731\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/criticizing-the-government#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/criticizing-the-government\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Criticizing the government\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-02T20:46:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-02T21:11:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/criticizing-the-government\"},\"wordCount\":932,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/criticizing-the-government#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-6362dcc5103d3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Criticizing\",\"Gambia\",\"Government\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/criticizing-the-government#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/criticizing-the-government\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/criticizing-the-government\",\"name\":\"Criticizing the government - 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