Yahya Jammeh: Barking Mad Or A Revolutionary Genius

Thank God it's Friday, and especially so in The Gambia. You see the tin-pot dictator in that West-African nation, Yahya Jammeh, recently decreed that from now on all public-sector workers will only work a four-day week. What a stroke of genius! He might be short of a fuse or two, but we should give this deranged-fellow credit where credit  is due. Furthermore, his revolutionary action does go far in proving the proverbial claim that, indeed, there is a thin line between being a genius and being barking mad.

This is not the first time, by the way, that Alhaji Sheikh Professor Dr. Yahya Jammeh (to use his full title) has shown his revolutionary colours. In 1995 he attempted (in vain) to ban the use of skin-lightening creams in The Gambia, and in 1998 Gambia's first university finally opened under his rule.

We who live in The West can also also use some of his chutzpah. Half of all public-sector employees (here in the West, at least) are really filing clerks and are surplus to needs. To keep present employment levels in our public-sectors, maybe we should follow Yahya Jammeh's lead and make the work-week a four day endeavour.

SF 49ers: Why Oh Why?

Until the day I die I will never know why the SF 49ers called three straight passing plays -- all to the same player -- in their last offensive drive of the title game, and all in the opposing team's Red Zone. They had all the momentum, and were in striking distance of the end-zone. On top of that they had in Frank Gore the league's best short-yardage runner, and in QB Colin Kaepernick, the league's best rushing quarterback. And yet, to the horror of everyone, offensive-coordinator Greg Roman proceeded to call three straight passing-plays to wide-receiver Michael Crabtree. 

Crabtree has been QB Colin Kaepernick's favorite target all season long and the Baltimore Ravens knew this. They had been double and triple-teaming him all afternoon long. Why, oh why did the 49ers insist on calling these bone-headed plays to a marked receiver when running it in would have been a much better option. Why oh why?? Even a draw-play by the QB would have put the team into the end-zone.

Anyway, we'll never know what possessed Greg Roman on that Sunday evening. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, the play-calling of the 49ers in that final drive was a "riddle wrapped in a mystery". It was a case of lousy play-calling at its worst and it spoiled a fine season by the Bay Area's finest sports franchise.