Vote of Thanks to Europe, America, and China.

During times of national economic stringency, immigrants are generally the first targets for disdain, derision, and scapegoating. Any infraction by an immigrant, major or minor, can easily result in wholesale riot against all immigrant communities, and that is understandable in the annals of human relationships - the outsider is to blame.

I come today to share this special vote of thanks to the great peoples and governments of Europe (particularly Spain and Scandinavia), America, Canada, and China for your hospitality and generosity of spirit toward your Gambian communities variously. This community, of which I am a part, did not use to migrate much for purely economic reasons. We have emigrated largely for educational and experiential reasons from the time of our independence, and because of our passion in democracy, nurtured by our founding President Sir Dawda Jawara, we have also hosted millions of foreign nationals from all cultures and communities around the world.

A significant value of our illustrious Gambians living and working outside of Gambia, a majority of whom were exiled by the tyrannous governments that succeeded President Jawara, is to continue to nurture our fragile democracy at home amid tremendous odds. I am confident if you have come across a Gambian in your community, you already know we are a breed apart. We are not much given to criminal conduct or addled pinafore. You may have encountered Gambians as colleagues in your organizations and in International organizations, or as mere acquaintances, and I trust your interactions have been benign and largely enriching. Of our own volition, we would remain and develop Gambia as the beacon of light in Africa, but that is not the healthiest form of growth for any person or nation.

Democratic growth requires synergies of interaction around the world, as well as the free movement of peoples who add value to humanity. Without it, we would have polar concentrations of these and those extremes, leaving us all poorer and in abject despair.

Currently, the United Democratic Party officials are on a tour of Europe. I am not a member or officer of the UDP, I merely wish to thank you on their behalf, for your gracious welcomes of them, and for your hospitality toward them. I plead for forgiveness of erstwhile error and omission on their part, and encourage your greater communion with them. Their religions may be different from yours, but they engage for their more diminished fellows at home. A special Thank You to the great peoples and municipal governments of Barcelona, and to Copenhagen.

Haruna Darbo