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By Amadou Manjang  I love arranging and rearranging things in our house but my roommate doesn’t. We have two different views, ideas and taste on how the house should look like. My roommate, literary fancy fix and static arrangement because he doesn’t want to waste time thinking where the spoon, book or pen is. Our house is a tiny square box ahboring two individuals, different in everything except their love for books and they took pleasure in placing books on the edge of the bed. The only thing they have in common.  I sporadically like moving the bed from the right to left today, and tomorrow from right to left. I did the same with book shelves, cupboards, tables and chairs. Moving the books creates hurly-burly, even for myself. I fancy my roommate's philosophy of no need to think to find everyday needed things like a spoon or book. Many times I can’t even remember where I place a teaspoon or the lighter and I would spend valuable time trying to locate it. Anytime my roomm...

Team Outpost  Sally Jarju, the President of Association of Health Journalists (AOHJ) is attending a two day's workshop for media executives and science/health journalists in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 19-20th August 2024.  The training is powered by the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC.) The event is in alignment with its strategic communication objectives for 2024, to conduct regional engagements with member states and key stakeholders to increase their knowledge and identify their role in implementing the agency's five years strategic plan. Under the theme: Building a Strong and Effective Media Engagement Partnership for Africa CDC, the editors roundtable engagement aims to provide the media executives with first-hand information and indepth-knowledge about Africa CDC’s mandate, its strategic vision (2023-2027), and the New Public Health Order among others.  The event will endeavor to establish concrete partnership and commitment with media e...

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has officially declared the ongoing Mpox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS), marking the first such declaration by the agency since its inception in 2017. This declaration, under Article 3, Paragraph F of the Africa CDC Statutes, empowers the organization to lead and coordinate responses to significant health emergencies. The statute mandates Africa CDC to “coordinate and support Member States in health emergency responses, particularly those declared PHECS or Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), as well as health promotion and disease prevention through health systems strengthening, addressing communicable and non-communicable diseases, environmental health, and Neglected Tropical Diseases.” The declaration will enable the mobilization of resources across affected countries, unlocking essential funding, strengthening Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE)...

 Fatou Bensouda, Gambia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, was honored by the Asia One Europe-Africa Business and Social Forum with the Diplomatic Excellence Award. This award was presented to Heads of Diplomatic Missions who have shown exceptional dedication to serving their countries and fostering better diplomatic relations with other nations. The award recognizes the recipients' teamwork, positive bilateral and multilateral relationships, and their efforts in commercial and personal interactions while carrying out their diplomatic duties.

By Cherno Omar Bob  The Gambia ended the Paris 2024 Olyympic Games without any of its 7 athletes winning a medal. The Gambia was represented by 3 athletes in athletics, 2 swimmers, 1 judoka and 1 taekwondo.  Alasan Ann was the last athlete to take to the stage on Saturday 10th August 2024 and lost 2-0 to Croatian Ivan Sapina in his Men +80kg round of sixteen at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The fight for Ann who was making his maiden Olympic appearance for The Gambia took place at Grand Palaise, Paris. The two-time medalist in the men’s 87 kg event at the World Taekwondo Championships and two-time medalist, including gold, in his event at the European Taekwondo Championships beat Ann in round two. Ann is the first Gambian taekwondo athlete to qualified to the Olympic Games. The 23-year-old secured his qualification as one of 16 Africans who secured a Paris 2024 quota spots at the 2024 African Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament in Dakar. Ann reached the final of the Afr...

By Alagie Saidy-Barrow  I have argued, at various times that as a people, unless the foundations we stand on are dismantled, Gambia will never rise. I still stand by that position. And when I say dismantled, people assume it’s destruction but that is not the case here. Dismantling means systematically taking apart every single piece of the columns we stand on and examining them to see if they are fit for purpose. For instance, why do we feel the need to give prime land to the President or public and civil servants? You’ll hardly ever hear such prime lands being given to some poor woman in the backwaters of Badibu? How fair is this land allocation system? We seldom ask these types of questions because those who are supposed to play the drum and sitting comfortably on it.  Gambia is not where it is today because Gambians are stupid or lazy, no, we are where we are because we insist on colonial foundations that have never worked for any African country! And these foundations were...

By Cherno Omar Bob Gambian 50m freestyle swimmer, Ousman Jobe, has expressed satisfaction with his maiden Olympics appearance timing for The Gambia even though he did not break his person best. In an interview with this reporter shortly after his competition, the young swimmer said: “I feel good even though I did not clock my personal best.” Jobe finished 6th position in his Men Freestyle 50m category heats on Thursday 1st August 2024 with a timing of 26.97 seconds. The timing means he failed to progress to the next stage of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Ousman, who was making his maiden Olympics appearance for The Gambia described the Olympic Games as really competitive. He pointed out that he trained in Thailand with those he competed against in the heats, saying they did not beat him much in the heats. Jobe, who has secured another scholarship to train in France ahead of the next Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles in 2028, said he would train more and compete in fourth comin...