The gun dealers are lame ducks the government you will have a lot of work to do because youre not doing what you. Told the mining coast of africa and looking at the shorelines across the atlantic its easy to see why the gambia is a very popular destination for tourists but it really goes escaping the winter in europe but what are some of the unintended consequences of tourism well i have a group of young people here who are going to help me answer that question and im going to start with is actually a rapper but he uses his music. On the fly the voice of young people and the issues around him so ace of headed said that the gambia is a sex tourism hotspot is a true. Absolutely it definitely has a hospital. Understand if it was only limited towards people who are on the same category as adults but. Its even went down to a level where you see paedophilia like on a rapid basis children as young as 9 years old you know being preyed on by tourist you know so its not just the sex tourism of prostitutes and women of beautiful gandhian women you know but also the young generation who are coming up and are being exploited by you know stories of ok i want to speak to somebody who is actually an official from the Tourism Ministry mr hummingbird you are the Senior Product Development office saying the ministry youve heard what the young man has said but you minister has said that this is not true so where is the contradiction when if you say it is a sex tourism destination thats where the const contradiction is. Nobody is saying theres no sex tourism in the grammar of what do you call it a Success Stories in this nation that it looks like the border station is prepared you know. Product developed you know market sex Tourism Business which is the ministers argument ok so potato potato here it sounds to me but when you deny that this is really happening in the country dont you think you also deny people a chance to solve the problem again i insist on what i said in the beginning that there is no denial of sex tourism taking place in the country because were seeing it what were denying is people. Who is in this nation so its not. Its this is the difference you need to draw the line between the 2 where the destination is the sex tourism destination or sex tourism going on if the situation is going on particularly myself ive been in the industry for such a long time and ive seen sex Tourism Practices i am not denying it but if the minister says its not a sex Tourism Business and im not aware of that im not aware of a great yeah i mean my point being i believe the minister have to understand that his country is being labeled as a sex Tourist Destination by who the sex tourists who come there and feedback information and market gambia as a sex Tourist Destination and i believe thats what they have to understand and come out with more strategies to counter that sort of what comes and they come back from. Culturally the music you know but not as a sex Tourist Destination because as soon as they come to something gambia. The 1st thing you see majority of the target and youve got some old lady looking for a young man who is enough you know to take care of her sexually or the other way around because it actually exists on a large scale here to get me ok so i think we can definitely agree that sex stories in definitely happening here were not making it up even the person from the Ministry Says that his weakness did so i want to come to you shes a journalist but for the purposes of this conversation shes also a womens rights activist so how did this all begin take me through it because the country doesnt just host 6 truths out of nowhere it actually is very very its going to be very difficult to. Take away sex tourism from a country that is mostly dependent on tourism in itself but this is something that hussein the park has been really happening and for that reason weve seen officials take it very very seriously when you come to say the gambia for instance this is a place where we have a lot of tourists coming to and so what happens or interesting is that they make sure that people or young girls under the age of 18 find it very difficult to access these places will also have the sexual offenses act that also condemns sex store i mean and to sex tourism in the country but also when you go to hotels you have these athletes and after reaching them very modified for them for tours themselves to understand that you cannot take part in these practices in this country when you go to the communities themselves where sometimes when tourists come to engage in sex tourism you go to the communities because they know when you come to the hotels then you might be tracked easily ok so you have lets not lets not lets not jump the gun here because i think were talking about regulation and we still dont know what the real problem is because were talking about troops coming in the streets coming in but theyre in gauging with danielles so why are gambians participating so thats actually the point that you make because theres a problem we have to sensitize like having communities a little bit more theres got to be a grassroots effort to educate the families because at the end the day in the family is poor theyre making a 1000. 00 see a modern almost certain this white european male or female comes without 1000 of dollars offer to take their child to europe give them a visa give them a better life they turn a blind eye and that is what the issue is and i think it starts with the young people as well because some of them until theyre 18 theyre 17 theyre 16 they know what these people are coming here for but again its the poverty at the same time though the hotel they cant turn a blind eye the policeman cant and without a made sure that everything is and in place so when these pedophiles all these dirty harrys thats what we call them dirty harrys back in the day these dirty harrys. Satirise when they come to the gambia they know there is a no nonsense policy ok i want to speak to a gentleman from the Tourism Committee his name is sue lehman john and is it a question of marketing or is it just that. People have become complacent that this is how things work here and this is how they will continue to work days from doing that week or responsible tourism and discuss to raise tourists that are coming here and the people that they are meeting here so we all have to be responsible to make sure that you know. Our spirit Tourism Sector is responsible you know who may come here just to have you know form 6 whatsoever but we also have the responsible parties who are coming here to develop our local communities i think be something that is a holistic approach that we need to take to at least. You know responsible through the vote on the ministry ok got these police already in place ill come back and ask about implementation but i want to go back to something that you set fire to which is that there is a cause and effect to 6 years in the cause being unemployment can you talk to me about that was a situation like for young people here was its very very i have heard this can range and because like we were talking about in town we have about 41. 5 percent of young people who are unemployed in this country so you realize that there is a high tendency of young people getting themselves involved in certain acts that can just give them income and when you when you come to become a gambler you realize its a low income country its a developing country it takes about we the people sensitizing our south as well as the shows are taking it upon themselves to make this family understand why is it so important to be patient if they cant go you know all out and make something for themselves does not guarantee for going on to something that would not last within a day the stories they go and we stay here what do they live with us nothing so it comes back to all of us as a people but also i believe the government will be watching. You know that young people are tired even though were talking that opportunities are there but we still have 41. 5 percent who are still unemployed ok let me speak to mr hamilton back to you kill is mission is a part of the can you think when its a pull console this is a region where were at and hes one of the representatives so whos already you doing to make sure that young people in this area are not falling prey to people who are trying to exploit them are you offering opportunities for them training perhaps. Recently you have conduct. Towards them for them its not easy for them to try to where we have given recommendations for improvement of the Tourism Sector but what about for the young people are trying to come you know the thing is that we have to understand the importance of tourism and the role it plays in this country. Contributes a lot to the Gross Domestic Product of this country and it creates a lot of employment in this country. Is that those practices that we are hearing now is passionate we have to accept the reality its about time for young people to use their Creative Change and most of the people engaged in these trade deals are not gun violence. These are not. Small number engaged in this thing and normally when you ask them they will basically own property you know but the thing is that you have to use creating one like me ive been walking in the Tourism Industry for quite a long time and i know the industrial importance of the industry and the group things that it brings about yes i know youre insisting that its beneficial to the country and i think its also important for us to see tourism actually is the 2nd highest foreign income earner in this country so what youre seeing cannot be overstated. With hearing that these 6 resume with those who are engaging in it and not gonna be true on. 1st of all i would just like to put a pinpoint on something before i forget which is really an insult towards the. Sex tourism and that came from the highest authorities within the state and that was when recently norwegian paedophile was parting from prison somebody who raped a girl who was less than 10 years old and he was pardoned amongst many other prisoners who were pardoned and seeing that come in from approval approved by the Justice Minister under the watch of the executive. Of his excellence he himself i think that alone is towards the efforts to fight against sex tourism because if you like more than 46 years old who came on holiday was put into jail and was arrested and locked up for committed sexual offenses towards a minor and that person is apartment while you have example regional because young people who are arrested over stay locked up and then that does not even give to the young people who are trying our best as young people to be on a positive channel despite the frustrated society that we live in so ok so let me go back to me john because i think that relates directly to you the tourism offenses act which was mentioned earlier what does it say about a case like that and what sort of message to send i had the same feelings when i heard the guy was actually what mrs beyond me its be undiminished of which im glad. To watch of their daughter too because thats something for them to address but surely how do you how do you think these young people feel when you were part of the ministry saying it was beyond you so who should be dealing with ok what i can say is at our level when he was a reporter we have used the means that we have under the tories are not actually to address the guard and take him for prosecution which was our limit and then pardons done by the executive that is why i what i what i said by its. Equally i mean share the same sadness with them that this guy is just an. If. You would. You will come to the only you have something yeah just think that its a disgrace that our gambian government would pardon a pedophile and like he said if anything like that happened overseas gambians would be in jail for life but what i want to do is go back to the unemployment issue yes and 21. 5 percent young people that are unemployed the issue is we need to start creating new worse if jobs are not available lets teach the young people skills where they can learn a craft or use their businesses to create some type of avenue while for themselves and their families for generation to come 2nd of all right now the Tourism Industry has been privatized there doing these what do you call that were all inclusive situations where the communities are not going to benefit if you tell you can you explain what an all inclusive situation so an all inclusive its like maybe a 500. 00 tourists from russia will come theyll stay at the Sheraton Hotel theyll eat there theyll party there the do everything that maybe they might come out for something but thats it they stay there so where do the craft market benefits what are the taxable what are the little peanut lady benefit you know its so when you talk about tourism and you want to do this privatized up to reason how does it help the people then ringback you can start privatizing the big shoes and telling the people they cant even go to the beach their beaches like they do in jamaica so we have a lot to do to gambia this is a new gambit lets not allow old time thinking and green now do were supposed to do to make sure the youth of the 1st priority ok i want to address something that you said earlier which is that the people participating in these illegal activities are not gambians and i just want to clarify it is true or not you know they are gambians as a matter of fact its only maybe between maybe 1015 years that weve had an influx of sierra leone liberia and i just what about the bomb situation weve been having and live in the camp that our friends who got visas overseas yours that maybe are so were not doing that but im telling you everybody has been liberians gambians nigerians poverty is poverty its not about where you come from its about trying to survive and everybody is trying to survive it doesnt matter what country you come from. If you look at the minimum wage like 25. 00 a month you see what im saying and imagine an ordinary family you might have a minimum of 4 kids who live over 25. 00 a month so if you come to a place like. I dont want people in the richest boat is one of the main reasons why people come here but you have to mind when you look at me as an artist when you look at the Creative Space in the gambia for entertainment this is the only place outside of tourism which are one of our only places that we have if i want to go to a regular party is around this area if i want to go to a club around this area this is decentralised this is the only place that you have so if you come here once twice 3 times 4 different times you meet different people who are trying to meet people like you. But maybe if gambia had like. That were meant for tourism more places for people to entertain themselves without coming here example as a young person i dont like coming here i come here i get stopped i get harassed ive got to show my id maybe. I thought i cant can someone explain well cynic im going straight weve been talking about this for a long this is the strip were on its very famous with tourists and as weve had locals as well but one of the interesting things is at the top of the road theres a checkpoint and at the bottom as well why why why is it the last time i came here when my friend i was i almost got in my heart because i felt like why is this happening but i understand that theyre trying to put some regulator imagines you so that because this place dominated by juries and so they want to put a lot of protection i mean but also because of that some of the gambian also are also deprived deprived from accessing their planes if you look at especially when its tourism season so what i just want to see and rather my own part when is that we have a lot of potential like the one time we had this discussion about promoting arts and culture in the country i think the government has to be able to invest a lot in young peoples potential just so that we can be able to prevent all these vices that comes with being unemployed this is the main reason why. Not grown enough to be walking in certain places you will find them seated. And also goes to other young people so if we start investing in young people and believing in their potential im sure we have a lot more that we can guard and being victims of sex tourism well thats far too little it isnt just much she actually has to rush to the airport if you dont see her again thats why im where you understand that you work at the craft market which is just behind here can you tell me how tourism has changed your life a look. At. Least. In the country like the Coffee Market here. But what happens in the low season like now a new season being when its summertime in the north and hemisphere what happens to your businesses and does the government coming to question you. As a business. Killer is i want to come back to you because were talking about the benefits now and you can see how old this whole strip is lined with restaurants bars but who owns them actually let me start with you youre a waitress youve been working in the industry for about 3 years have the owners been gambian or have they been foreign most of them are foreigners. And its because i dont do Many Gambians want to invest in their country but due to lack of financing i will do it so most of the people on this business are for him ok yeah so again we are truly benefiting the real owners of foreigners there gentrification happening here to be partially but then remember we used to live in a dictatorship and a lot of investors who could have really invested and. Who could actually buy you know but a lot of people fear to invest because of the investment environment here and again you could come and create something major and the president would just take it from you know saying i think that also led to one of the main reasons why you know. Like a lot of gamblers dont own on the other side though as far as gambles participating within the tourism you have to understand weve got a list of the benefits is only seasonal and you look at it from the top of the food chain to the bottom of the food chain who benefits the most these are the hotels the benefit the most you know and the operators they charge at high rates they come here and the all inclusive packages the benefits that the gambian which are her tips that she would get you know from or not inclusive package she will get a form inclusive package and then to even the work conditions of this by the pharmacy i went to a lot of shops where i seem gambians who work as the waitresses and waiters but they have low salaries you know they have poor conditions they get treated like nothing they cant protest working conditions lets ask the people who are actually in its factor youre seeing show every time this is can you give me an example through things like we walk in ask and at the same patterns will be inside if you can see that when you wait in the kitchen ok there will be a place its should be at least have a ventilator but theyre just like you know even having a place would be hard well be doing a suite in yes with the money i and its always left just to give you an idea the gambia is truly hot and humid you can see how much im sweating so to work in a kitchen without going to lucian must be truly difficult this also sounds familiar to you is of course its true because i went. During the season to have all our sorrows which you know. Money germans are the only other increased mentally churns nights and every 2 weeks you know at least it would help because we had a way to. Come up into i know that i wanted to managers of the owners of the bar i did increase their salaries because because they had lot of sales which you know. At least in the at a little bit. Was not in. Ok so let me go to supporting here because were hearing that yes the industry is hiring. A lot of gambians but the conditions are not great the money is not enough is there any regulation from the ministry. That we had before i stood up and said to the minister the minimum which for for for people working in the industry is something that we find here because a lot. Since the seventys if you are asking people to pay 1500. 00 to a waiter they will go for it what is that in town 1500. 00. Something like that im not very good at math so if you actually tell people to pay 1500 as a basic salary then you are encouraging them to mistreat Unemployed People who are not skilled and this is the problem with our service in the industry so i said to the minister and i proposed i jokingly said if i actually was the minister for tourism and everybody laughed this is what im going to do im going to put a minimum wage for tourism employees i went up for 7000. 00. That would have. Done so that would actually end. Up being accused of complaining. So yeah yeah yeah that would keep me from my opinion every hears about it ok i was there i was in that forum and i can attest to that but like really disappointed with my rap. Here you disappoint what i was trying to tell my brother in europe or here is that you know dont wait for people to create a notice in the ground you have to take you out of iraq dont you. Know what im saying is that you can be doing gigs across the country i once told one artist playing loud. I told crying alone hes my contemporaries thats how you can. Go to school. To school what you are seeing the negative things that you are seeing here try to visualize in your community you have the. Police. Gumby and most of the guns are limp dogs ok so. Far you need to allow me to do my job you know. So let me let me allow you to respond and then im going to come back to you and. Say i want to go back to the discrimination in the profiling which happens to a lot of young gambian get to you thats something that ive experienced im not its not allegations but you know the automatic response would be that was a different generation this is a new new were going in this new generation within like like a couple of months ago the same thing happened you seem like a good judge based on your appearance with somebody whos worth of being in this place you know what im saying while a person like me might come like 20 stacks in my pocket but you know what i may get judged and this community for being a typical guy who are the majority here who follow the white people where my interest is probably to go to a spark come with a car all the time not once not twice not 3 times and then you see people who are like fathers and i just passed moving thing nothing happens and i feel like thats insult to me youre saying that foreigners and tourists are treated better than gangbangers who are better. Go argument about that now when do we agree at the back there. Yes so actually coming back to me as my responsibility as an artist i use my voice in response to what man was saying to address those situations because those are all part of any forms of social injustice yeah but you know we heard from was are you saying that you also have a responsibility. Said that most damning the lame dogs i disagree with that it is most gambian private citizens they have done what weve done to gambia and have gambia where it is because the government is not going to. The hotel the brand new all tells a young gambians the majlis follows the had to do was building the hotel bill in the club me myself i have nothing thousands of thousands of dollars he Bring International arms i brought. The spice i brought junior kelly i just did miss flamm gambia glam pageant just the other day were constantly using our own personal life to develop projects and programs for young people in this country we do trains i have a foundation where i do a Youth Leadership performing arts training for young people. 12 to 18 so dont tell us danny said i dont want to take our money terms again with overseas send their monies here monthly is it wasnt for them gambian people will be thinking so the government you will have a lot of work to do because youre not doing what you. Want to bring this to a close and look for solutions because i think its important to looking forward so were seeing there is a problem with the Tourism Industry and weve addressed some of those concerns but were also seeing that these benefits clear benefits so moving forward how do we create a balance so that the gandhian is not swallowed by the negative effects of tourism and id like to hear from you mr singh. Would be gone through as i already said because were responsible tourism and also play through it because. People who are working in the industry and also government enforce you know. But i have to catch it because all batteries are running out so i want to hear from you very quickly well i think the government 1st of all should make sure that all of the money that is generated from our 2nd highest honor goes back to the people so that the people will be poor enough to always come back here and explain it once and also for the government to work on all year around torres and i believe that is more opportunities and theres more ways to fix issues that we are facing with a population and a movement of young people who are well informed i think we can do anything not just wasnt well so the gambia is where we are a country named after a river and one that has had a very checkered history but clearly based on what weve had here these a long way to go and young people have the solutions thank you for watching. Thank you for our flight thank you always the same team the table. The clubs with the most casual truck the best place to and just keep on with the mock up and the fair play fun and excitement. How can we say footlocker. The book. Doesnt make. Aggressive selfcentered. Doesnt make them friendlier more sociable maybe smom some. Testosterone but his other means a lot more complex than you would think the 1st thing. He discovered. Making them out. To be. Fixed. The temple of technology. With. The markets. Of the board. Made in germany. Your business magazine d w. The world unto itself. With its own gravitational pull. Of the finest musical compositions. With some mysteries teresa. Dont believe that she was into them dont tell me that thats enough. For you and the joint to come up in the morning. Revealed the symphonies of donnas palms. The brahms code. Starts oct 11th on t. V. Talk show enough. This is g. W. News live or let prodemocracy protests in hong kong are sparked by violence once again clashes broke out at a mall when probation activists face off with the protesters its just the latest tough. Nation after months of frequently violent demonstrations also coming up the nation celebrates the life and legacy of one of the most controversial actor leaders of our time in bothwell holds a state funeral for robert mugabe. And 2 large oil facilities