With GRA Losing Proper Tax Revenue
INDIANS TAKE OVER BUSINESS IN GAMBIA
Allegedly Importing Workers from India
As Banks Issue them Blank Checks
By Ebrima Papa Colley (Gambiano)
The 1980s and 90’s Gambia was an era of Amintabh Bacchan, Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Mithun Chakraborty, Sri Devi, Rekka (Ji), Sattrugan Sinha, and Manoj Kumar films that might have been a little outdated, but still very popular in the tiny West African nation. This was ever before Salman Khan dreamt of today’s stardom post Aishwarya Rai debacle—or Amir and Shahrukh Khan doing either Bazigaar (1993) or Lagaan (2001). And Madhuri Dixit’s Abodh (1984) did not yield her the same recognition from Tridev (1987) or Dil (1990) and Juhi Chawla was to come in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak in 1988. But Gambians hardly knew these Indian actors and actresses by real names. They called Mithun G-9, Dharmendra Dra, and Sri Devi Snake Girl, perhaps due to her striking performance in Nagina (1986) alongside Rishi Kapoor.
The hard work shows in the constitution and structure of Indian films—ranging from dancers, music composers (A.R Rahman, Anu Malik, Nadeem-Shravan [wished they were still together], Jatin-lalit [wished they were also still together], Laxmikant–Pyarelal), just to name a few. And the actors haven’t come in yet. Nostalgia proved itself again just days ago at the Hum Aap Hai Kaun reunion as Madhuri and Salman brought back the “Gulel” scene.
But even if the films were mainly copy-cat renderings of Hollywood blockbusters of Saturday Night Fever for Mithun Chakraborty’s popular Disco Dancer (1982) or Aamir khan’s Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991), which was copied from Hollywood’s It Happened One Night (1934), Gambians still loved the songs from these Indian films without even a basic Hindi.
Like most African immigrants elsewhere, most Indians in the diaspora are very hardworking as are those in the slums of Mumbai or Delhi. They share very similar values with Africans in terms of kids having no say over parents. They could even kill innermost love plans only to marry a parent’s choice. Many Gambians have done that.
Many Gambians love weddings. Indians love bigger weddings. Most Gambians that afford and attend Western colleges and universities excel. Indians ditto. Most Gambians are poor. So are most Indians. In fact, there is a secluded African tribe, black and prototypically African in India today, called the Siddhi. They came from Africa—not kidding!
The two countries, perhaps, could easily merge and become one if not for distance. No! Not really. Alan Greenspan, in his Age of Turbulence was too diplomatic about India’s problems. He did not want to offend the caste system and the endemic corruption that has widened the gap between the rich and poor to a chasm in a nuclear power that has to sniff after The Fed he oversaw for over a decade.
But Greenspan’s America, Tony Blair and Boris Johnson’s Britain, as well as Chancellor Merkel’s Germany would see it normal if girls in their countries marry Africans. In fact, some Western girls brag about mingling and marrying Africans. Their males do the same—all in solidarity with humanity’s culture universal that we are all human, after all. But this link below says otherwise, according to what this Indian father in the United States did to kill his Indian son’s black wife:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2x3nfs5RZY
Today’s Indian girls continue to defy the racism norm by dating and marrying blacks—not usually inside India. But that’s just love and romance. How about living in India as an African? Of course, not all Africans, however scarce they are in India face the racism. This link has some answers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxXJeWkbgXc
There are so many statistics to draw from. We don’t have time to address the history of skin bleaching in India as well as the resentment towards dark skin. Apart from Rajkinath and his son-in-law Danush, the Indian society abhors dark skin to exclude actors like Mamik Singh, a dark Indian in Aamir Khan’s Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander (1991). Mamik was far better-looking than most Bollywood male actors. But he did not become a super star in India.
In Suraj Bharjatya’s Vivah (2006), a supporting actress’s mother had to decry how her favorite daughter could not get marriage proposals due to her dark skin. Thus, its not uncommon to see marriage ads in India going blatant about, “I’m looking for a light-skin girl, or light-skin groom.” And most Indians are dark—darker than some Fulas in The Gambia. Those that are lighter often bleach or avoid the sun. Yet, there are those Indians that still marry blacks as there are those that are not corruptible and clannish. There are, in the same token, very corrupt Gambians.
Africa as a continent, not a country has a population of 1,323,904,856 (that’s 1.32 Billion people). India as a country, not a continent has a population of 1,370,659,594 (that’s 1.37 billion people). Gambia’s population, just recently reached 2 million. According to Wikipedia, United Arab Emirate’s population is about 9 million—42% of that is Indian. And more Indians are migrating there.
According to history.com, “The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Those on the West Coast were especially prone to attribute declining wages and economic ills on the despised Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only 0.002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white [“racial purity.”]
“The statute of 1882 suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and declared the Chinese as ineligible for naturalization. Chinese workers already in the country challenged the constitutionality of the discriminatory acts, but their efforts failed. The act was renewed in 1892 for another ten years, and in 1902 Chinese immigration was made permanently illegal. The legislation proved very effective, and the Chinese population in the United States sharply declined.” We don’t want that to happen to our Indian brethren. We should love the honest and ready to integrate ones.
According to Gambia’s Expatriation Quota system, a foreign company is allowed to hire 20% non-Gambian and 80% Gambian. A government insider, on Monday revealed to forGambia that Indian businesses in The Gambia today hire up to 50% Indian. The insider said Indians, today mainly come to The Gambia through Indian job recruiting agencies in India. They advertise jobs in The Gambia to them in India and they apply to come to Gambia. “We tell them to comply with the 80-20 ratio, but they hide and over-hire Indians from India,” a source continued.
Worse, “they lie to the GRA about the salaries of the Indian workers here. They give us false information, for example, for a salary of D5000 for an Indian worker whose ticket, alone, to come to The Gambia is around D75,000 to D85,000. And they do that to avoid paying the right tax due to the GRA. But the rest of the money is sent to India and the recruitment agency keeps it for them till their contract in the Gambia, which is usually two years ends. When they return to India, that money is there for them. They collect it, add it to their other savings from The Gambia, and then come back to Gambia to start another Indian business, “the source continued.
“When they hire Gambians, it’s usually maid jobs such as cleaning and other menial functions. Anything clerical or document handling is done only by Indians,” the source stated. Years ago, a Gambian woman, a maid, alleged that her Indian boss called her, “lazy black monkey.” But such daylight racism is nothing compared to what banks in The Gambia do for so-called investors from India. It can be seriously wondered how a job-seeker arriving through an agency can be called an investor.
Our sources alleged that banks in The Gambia give Indians “an open check policy, which gives them an opportunity to withdraw any amount in foreign currency. They send it overseas to import any merchandise,” a source said under strict terms of anonymity. Such an edge breaks any competition from local Gambians who own similar businesses because the pricing advantage tilts to the Indians. That’s how they kick out Gambians that travel all the way from America to open businesses in The Gambia.
In 1972, Uganda’s Idi Amin gave the country’s Indian population 90 days to leave the country. Later, his government suffered a military coup before which the air in kampala was filled with an “Asian”, meaning Indian conspiracy to assassinate Amin. “They sucked us enough,” a Ugandan lady said in a Thames’ documentary. Amin claimed the same, adding that Indians come to our soil and treat us sub-humanly. It all comes from the cast system propensity. Today, South Africa’s Julius Malema is saying exactly the same.
The Thames documentary secretly interviewed an Indian at the outskirt of Kampala who blatantly said that Africans lacked the ability to run factories and businesses in their own land—a racist argument used by Jim Crow south to posit that Blacks are one-eight human. The same journalist asked Ugandans to respond to that claim and they did it the best way.
“No that’s not correct. The fact is that Africans were deprived the opportunities to get into trade, “a Ugandan replied. And an open check policy for migrating Indians adopted by banks in The Gambia, which are usually foreign-owned is just a quick attestation, if not a recipe for the Ugandan 1972. Are they giving Gambians similar opportunity? Is the Ugandan, back in 1972 correct? Please watch the Indian/Ugandan expulsion of 1972 here:
Out of 80,000 Indians in Amin’s Uganda, only 20,000 accepted Ugandan citizenship. The rest went to England and Canada. One Indian businessman gloated it was easier to make money in Uganda. Africans didn’t know how to seize those opportunities. There was “very easy earning…. easier life. Africans are very cooperative. We get goods from London [and sell it to them]. Because the Africans, they didn’t know the business,” bragged an Indian business owner living in Uganda for 30 years in 1972.
And Idi Amin became a demon we all hated due to propaganda. Like the Amintabh Bacchan films of the 80s and 90s we adored, we all watch and believe the garbage from propagandists who even accused him of eating human flesh. Today, in 2019, there are still Gambians believing that Idi Amin was the worst human being without even knowing the history in Uganda. We welcome good Indians to Gambia. And we admire those honest ones.
It was very curious of the Indian president to visit Gambia when Adama Barrow was even away. While we welcome and thank the Indian President, what was so important about Gambia all of a sudden— was it just strengthening bilateral relations often echoed in politics, or to book the small country for more bank open check policy, the tax evasion, the business cartel that brags on Facebook about shutting down local Gambian businesses, and creating a monopoly similar to the one in Uganda until 1972?
Gambians told forGambia that out of the once Gambian-filled businesses that adorned the Jimpex road, there is perhaps only one standing today along the same road. We hope that our Indian brethren in The Gambia respect Gambians and their business laws. Those conniving with any cartel to overstep limits will only invite the Ugandan resentment towards a people we would have continued to love when hunger, poverty, and exploitation fuels indigenous indignation.
We pray that we never reach that level. Today’s humans are getting much more informed and aware in this age of nano-second information sharing. We at forGambia, with our utilitarian philosophy will not rest until most Gambians are free from hunger and poverty. Our reporting style isn’t that of conventional journalism because we are not here to cater to journalism. We are here to cater to, especially Gambia’s poor the best way we can the same way we serve the human family irrespective of race, creed, or national origin.
gambiano821@gmail.com