When it comes to confident countries, people always think of proud Americans for the first time, after all, they think they are the best in the world and think they are superior. But the blind self-confidence of the people of this country is even more terrifying than that of the Americans, declaring that "they are the strongest in the whole universe."
"Capture the Soviet Union in 7 days"
"1,000 soldiers occupy China in 24 hours"
These are the "bold words" released by the leader of this country, which single-handedly offended the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. They gave soviet leaders a middle finger and taught the president of the United States to do things.
"The strongest in the universe" Gambia, peanuts are the main source of economy
The Gambia, located in Western Africa, has a territory of 11,000 square kilometers, only one-hundred-and-sixtieth of our country. It is flanked by Senegal on three sides, and this is the case because the Gambia was once an "enclave" of Senegal, and the two were originally one.
Around the tenth century, Arab merchants discovered the area and recorded it in books and materials. Since then, Senegal has occupied a very important position in the trans-Saharan trade. In the fifteenth century, the rising Portuguese invaded Senegal and became a Portuguese colony.
Then the French and The British invaded Seganel. The invaders learned that the area was rich in gold, ivory, and black slaves, plundered a large number of resources, and sold many black people in the territory to Europe, North America and other regions. In order to compete for this colony, Britain and France have launched many wars in 100 years, and neither of them will let go.
In 1783, Britain and France signed the Treaty of Versailles, which ceded Senegal to France, and the banks of the Gambia River came under British jurisdiction. In this way, Senegal was divided in two. The Gambia was colonized by the British for hundreds of years, and it was not until 1964 that britain agreed to its independence. In February 1965, the Gambia became officially independent.
The signing of the Treaty of Versailles
The Gambia has few mineral resources, and about two-fifths of the land is sandy, so many crops cannot be grown, only peanuts. Since the colonial period, the Gambians have generated GDP by growing peanuts, and the main crops exported are peanuts. After the Gambia became independent, they still made money from peanuts.
Usually, peanuts account for more than 50 percent of The Gambia's GDP, and 90 percent of export earnings come from peanuts. For hundreds of years, the country's economy was monolithic and heavily dependent on foreign aid. Today, the Gambia is listed by the United Nations as one of the least developed countries in the world, and it is still an agricultural country with no industrial or manufacturing presence at all.
In addition to peanuts, Gambia is rich in fish resources, including sardines, tuna and so on. The fish that are caught are not enjoyed by the locals, and most of the fish are sold to Europe. Foreign countries have taken a fancy to the Gambian resources and have sailed to overfish, leading to the depletion of the country's deep-sea fisheries.
Peanut production declined, fishery resources neared depletion, and the Already bad economy of the Gambia plummeted. Although the Gambia has only more than 10,000 square kilometers of land, the country has a large population. According to 2017 data, the population of the Gambia has reached 2.1 million and is still growing at a rapid pace.
In this way, muscular Gambian men have become the "playthings" of middle-aged and elderly women in Europe. On the beaches of the Gambia, young African guys are everywhere and white women in their forties and fifties behave intimately. The arrival of European women, which has driven local tourism, has become one of the main sources of foreign exchange in the Gambia in recent years. To date, there are no railways in the Gambia, and many people in the country are illiterate.
A small African country that makes money from peanuts and fish has neither money nor resources, and the United States can't look up to it. The answer is simple, the blind confidence of the Gambian leaders.
Veterinarians become leaders of a country
Throughout the world, leaders of various countries may be rich businessmen before they are elected, such as former US President Trump, or they may be soldiers, politicians, etc., but it seems that no country's leadership career is more different. No, this strange event happened to the Gambia.
Daouda Keraba Jawara was the first President of the Gambia and the "Father of the Nation" of the Gambia. How did he become president? Rely on his "skill" to heal animals.
In May 1924, Jawara was born in the small town of Barajali to a family of wealthy merchants and peasants, of the Mandingo ethnic group. Thanks to a good family environment, he received a good education and attended the protected British Methodist Boys' Secondary School in secondary school. At the age of 21, he became a medical assistant at Victoria Public Hospital.
In 1947, Jawara was admitted to the Veterinary Profession at archimota College. During this time, he met Kwami Nkrumah, the leader of the African National Liberation Movement. However, he had all his energy focused on his studies at that time, and he had little interest in politics, so he stopped. After a year of studying at the school, he studied veterinary medicine at the University of Glasgow and the University of Liverpool.
Along the way, Jawara developed a keen interest in politics, joining the Student Union of Africa, the British Labour Party's student organisations, and joining the workers' movement, where socialist ideology had a great influence on him. These experiences laid some foundation for him to enter politics in the future.
In 1953, Jawara received a bachelor's degree in veterinary medicine and returned to the Gambia the following year, becoming the country's first veterinarian. Four years later, he went to the University of Edinburgh to pursue a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. In 1958, he began working as Chief Veterinary Officer in the Gambia Medical Department. While healing the poultry and pets of the common people, Jawara gained the respect and support of the locals, making him famous in the countryside, and at the same time using his status in the government department to make friends with elites and local leaders from all walks of life, and accumulated contacts.
In late 1959, Jawara founded the Protectorate People's Party and became its general secretary. The following year, he resigned from his official position in the government and began running in the House of Representatives. At this time, his previous popularity, accumulated contacts and his own high education played a role, achieving an overwhelming victory, and was appointed minister of social welfare and education, which was a formal entry into politics.
But Jawara was not satisfied with the official position the government had given him, and led the BJP to protest and forced Britain to agree to another general election. Not surprisingly, the party triumphed again, becoming chief minister and soon becoming prime minister. After gambia's independence, he became the country's first prime minister, holding multiple positions, including foreign minister and defense minister. In 1970, Jawara became the first President of the Gambia.
Can a veterinarian govern a country? The answer is self-evident. When Jawara came to power, he held the power firmly, preferring to be tired and handle everything himself rather than divide the power. During his reign, peanuts, the gambia's main source of economy, plummeted due to drought, pests and diseases. In addition, grain production has also dropped sharply, grain prices have risen sharply, and the people's lives are very difficult.
Peanuts, the economic lifeblood of the Gambia, were mentioned earlier, and now it has reduced production, with a huge impact on the country's economy. Jawara has no idea how to deal with the matter at all and is still busy all day with how to dictate the Gambia. The inaction of the Jawara government and its rampant corruption have sparked popular discontent.
In July 1981, opposition parties staged a coup d'état. Unfortunately, they were unable to overthrow Jawara's rule. Afterwards, in order to save people's hearts, he went to the front line of the countryside to treat livestock. After all, the Gambia has the vast majority of the agricultural population, and Jawara's trick is useful.
In the eyes of the people, Jawara is the leader of a country, and they are very touched that he condescended to treat his own livestock and was "a good president who is close to the people". As a result, he regained the support of the general public and was re-elected several times.
Jawara called out the Soviet Union and China
Perhaps because he had studied in Western countries, Jawara showed a "pro-Western" stance in his political stance and was not friendly to the Soviet Union and China. In the United Nations General Assembly from 1965 to 1971, he always colluded with the United States and voted against China's proposal to restore its legitimate seat in the United Nations.
To make matters worse, Jawara established so-called "diplomatic relations" with Taiwan Province of China at the end of 1968, and three years later the two sides exchanged "ambassadors" with each other. This move of his has seriously violated China's sovereignty, and there is no doubt that he is challenging China's authority and openly fighting with china. But after the seventies, he suddenly changed his attitude towards our country.
At the end of 1974, the Gambia established diplomatic relations with the mainland of China and announced the "severance of diplomatic relations" with Taiwan Province of China. The following year, Jawara visited China. He suddenly changed his attitude toward China because China could provide aid to the Gambia. From 1975 to 1995, China helped the Gambia build independent stadiums, health centers, etc., and the two countries signed a trade agreement to export the hardware, textiles and other items they needed to the Gambia, and also imported fishery products from the country. But the friendly relations between the two countries have not been maintained.
As a self-confident country and a little brother of the West, Jawara's attitude towards the Soviet Union, america's nemesis, is certainly not very good. At that time, the Gambia had not yet established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. But he was thick-skinned and asked the Soviet Union for aid many times. If he had been friendly to the Soviet Union and might have provided some assistance, he was complicit with the West. Coupled with the beginning of contradictions within the Soviet Union, the Soviet side will certainly not give gambia supplies. Without Soviet assistance, Jawara was displeased and decided to take revenge on the Soviets.
At the United Nations General Assembly in 1980, Brezhnev was humiliated in public. Here's the thing, Jawara, in front of numerous national leaders, gave Brezhnev a middle finger when he spoke. The vertical middle finger is considered to be an insulting gesture around the world, which is a very impolite performance and a contemptuous meaning. This move of Jawara stunned everyone and made Bonezylev very angry.
Brezhnev
However, that's not all. Jawara openly shouted that "the Soviet Union should not leave a living mouth for 3 days", threatening to destroy the Soviet Union within a week. You know, the Soviet Union was a world superpower at that time, and its army had advanced weapons and equipment, was the Army of the Gambia even more powerful than the Soviet Army?
Ironically, the Gambia does not even have an army, and its weapons are vastly different from those of the Soviet Union. In February 1984, the Gambia had an army of only a few hundred men with poor combat weapons. One is a small agricultural country with a backward economy, the other is a superpower with millions of troops, the Soviet Union stomped on the Gambia and disappeared, I don't know where Jawara came from, the Gambia can destroy the Soviet Union in 3 days.
In 1985, when the Economy of the Gambia was devastated and the people of the country could not afford to eat, Jawara decided to ask the "Little Brother of the Soviet Union" for money to spend. Not surprisingly, his proposal was rejected by Gorbachev. The leader, who did not know the height of the sky, kicked his nose and said, "The Gambia will conquer the Soviet Union in 7 days."
How did a small African country rely on to defeat the Soviet Union in 7 days, relying on the blind confidence of its leaders? Or did it rely on an army of just 800 men? Jawara thinks he is "the strongest in the Gambian universe", but no one can beat him. Wars are fought with real guns, not "mouth cannons." His ignorant remarks have become the laughing stock of the international community.
The Jawara government was overthrown, and the gods became presidents, offending the five permanents
When Jawara was the headquarters of the Gambia, he had achieved nothing in the economic and political fields, and he only knew how to fight all day long, and did not focus on governing the country. Such an unreliable leader, the people's dissatisfaction with him will naturally be pushed out of office. In the 1990s, Western countries stopped aiding the Gambia, tourism was affected, and people's lives were even more difficult.
On 22 July 1994, the Gambian army, which had been in arrears for several years, staged a military coup under the command of a young lieutenant named Yahya Jammeh. This time, Jawara was not so lucky, and with no army in hand, he was ousted from power and had to flee overseas with 40 relatives and officials, ending more than 30 years of rule.
Yahya Jammeh
Militants led by Jammeh formed an interim ruling council, and at the age of 28, he became head of government and supreme commander of the armed forces, becoming the youngest president in the world at the time. The Gambia has changed its president, which is also an unreliable one.
Before Jammeh was elected president of the Gambia, he had more than 10 years of military experience and a high school education. After overthrowing Jawara's rule, he became supreme leader by manipulating elections. In order to consolidate his position, he imposed a dictatorship as soon as he came to power, arbitrarily installing his own cronies in important positions in the government.
Jammeh's approach has provoked strong resentment from other officers who have tried to overthrow the current government through a coup. They staged two coups, both of which failed, and the participants were either beaten to death or arrested by his orders, and none of them died well. As a military veteran, Jammeh firmly controls the army and pays attention to army building. In 1996, Jammeh established a navy of 70 men and expanded the number of troops to about 1,000 people, believing that the 1,000 soldiers who dominated the world were enough. Even though the Gambia is very poor, its annual military budget is around $1.5 million, which is used to buy weapons such as gunboats.
Jammeh and Jawara are similar in two ways – blind confidence and ignorance. During his tenure, Jawara had close relations with Western countries, and only fought with the Soviet Union and China. Jammeh was "better" than him and directly offended the five constants.
Shortly after the military coup in the Gambia, Jammeh announced the resumption of "diplomatic relations" with Taiwan Province of China. The Chinese government protested solemnly, and he ignored it. On July 25, 1995, China responded to Jammeh's violation of China's sovereignty by suspending diplomatic relations with the Gambia and stopping aid to that country.
Originally, the relationship between the United States and the Gambia was acceptable, but because of Jammeh's "riotous operation", the United States was also offended. In 2000, Gambian soldiers stormed the U.S. Embassy in the Gambia in order to arrest the opposition, killing protesters in the museum and beating up U.S. duty personnel inside the museum.
The United States could not sit still, believing that Jammeh was provoking its own authority, and the president directly ordered the closure of the embassy and announced sanctions against the Gambia. He did not realize anything wrong, and 2 years later he shouted that "if the United States does not stop sanctions on the Gambia, then send troops to conquer North America." In this regard, the United States said that it was not afraid at all, and did not do as he wished.
In 2007, Jammeh visited the United States. At that time, the relationship between the United States and china was more complicated. He said directly to Bush's face: "If the situation in the Taiwan Strait changes, you can rest assured that the Gambian general will have troops at the police station, which can completely curb China's military operations and occupy China within 24 hours." "I don't know where Jammeh came from, he can attack our country in one day, and he doesn't weigh his own strength." Similar remarks abounded, and no country took him to heart. Its absurd remarks are ironic.
At the end of the 1990s, Western countries stopped economic assistance to the Gambia, much to Jammeh's displeasure. So he threatened to "send troops across the European continent." Britain, Italy, France and other countries are not easy to provoke, and directly join forces to sanction the Gambia in the economic and political aspects. His clown behavior, instead of pulling back aid, offended these European countries and made the situation in the Gambia even more difficult.
At this point, the Gambia "gloriously" fulfilled the task of offending the five permanents.
Why is Jammeh the "President of the God Stick"? Because his behavior is similar to that of a god stick, crazy and insane. It is said that if he touches it, he can "cure AIDS and asthma."
Witchcraft is prevalent in rural Gambia, and Jammeh's aunt died in 2009. He firmly believed that witches who knew witchcraft had killed his aunt, and in order to avenge her, he ordered the capture of the witches. He sent intelligence officers, police and troops around to arrest suspects. Eventually, 1,000 elderly women were arrested. In order to force them to admit that they are witches with superpowers, Jammeh forces them to eat poison and make them hallucinate to confess their crimes.
In 2012, Jammeh ordered a "shoot first, then interrogate" policy for prisoners or suspects. The suspects are dead, and they don't know how the "great president" is going to interrogate them?
The data shows that more than 10,000 people in the Gambia are infected with AIDS, and even more people are living with it. Every year, many people die of AIDS. One day in early 2007, Jammeh suddenly announced that "she had been given some mysterious power by God and had the ability to cure asthma and AIDS."
It is terrible that the people of the Gambia have listened to Jammeh's nonsense. Since then, he has treated AIDS on Mondays and Thursdays, and asthma patients on Fridays and Saturdays. Every few days, banjul's parliament building is lined up, and they all come to the president for treatment. The treatment method is very simple, he applies a homemade colored potion to the patient's whole body, then touches them, and then locks the patient up for a period of time, "their disease is better." He claimed that the treatment only takes 1 day, and aids patients can turn negative within 3 days. Some patients even said that the president's treatment method was effective and felt that their health was much better.
Jammeh's absurd words and deeds have been criticized by the WHO, and many AIDS experts have denounced him and demanded that he stop talking nonsense. But he was not affected and continued to promote his own "treatment" in the Gambia. Under his seduction and rule, the entire Gambia became a god and a god. Still, there are always sober people who end up overthrowing Jammeh's absurd rule.
At the end of 2016, the Gambia held a general election, jammeh failed to qualify for re-election, and the opposition won the election. Perhaps knowing that he had done a lot of bad things and fearing that the opposition would settle accounts with him, he and his family left the Gambia by special plane in early 2017. Compared with the previous two presidents of the Gambia, Adama Barrow's attitude toward China is much friendlier, and the two countries have resumed normal diplomatic relations and cooperated in many fields.
The Gambia is now lagging behind, and Jammeh and Jawara have an unshirkable responsibility. If they develop the Gambia well during their time in power, and do not blindly believe in it and do not become a demon, the development of the Gambia will certainly be better than it is now. The faults of the two men are borne by the people of the Gambia, which is lamentable.
Well, today's article ends here, like friends please don't forget to pay attention to a little, thank you, we will see you in the next issue.