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 equally those 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 killer is actually a rapper but he uses his music. Company find the voice of young people and the issues around him so killer ive heard it said that the gambia is a sex tourism plus what is the true. Absolutely it definitely is a hot spot. I could 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 basis children as young as 9 years old you know. Being preyed on by tourists you know so its not just the sex tourism of prostitutes and women of beautiful gambian 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 jons you are the Senior Product Development officer in 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 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 is the core of the Success Stories in this nation that it looks like the whole destination is prepared you know. Product development 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 to begin in 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 destination so its not. Its this is the difference you need to go to line between the 2 where the destination is the sex tourism destination or secularism going on if there 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. Its not a sex Tourism Business and im not aware of that. Ok yeah. 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 were told this comes and they come back. On other side culturally the music you know but not as a sex Tourist Destination because as soon as they come to something. The 1st thing you see majority of the europeans talking to is some old lady looking for a young man who is enough you know to take good 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 tourism definitely happening here were not making it up even the person from the Ministry Says that hes witnessed it so i want to come to you shes a journalist for the purposes of these conversations also womens rights activists so how did this all begin take me through it because the country doesnt just host 6 troops out of nowhere actually it 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 part has been really happening and for that reason officials take it very very seriously when you come to for instance this is a place where we have a lot of tourists coming to and so what happens or interesting thing is that they make sure that people who are 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 sex tourism in the country but also when you go to hotels you have these athletes and its written very modified for them to for jurors 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 they 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 these stories coming into stories coming in but theyre in gauging with gambiers so why are gambians participating so thats actually a good point you make because theres a problem we have to sensitize the gavi communities and even 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 dollars see a month and almost certain this white european male or female comes without thousands of dollars 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 are no 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 find them and weve got to make sure that everything is in place so when these pedophiles or these dirty harrys thats what we call them dirty harry is back in the day the dirty harry said. Sarus 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 thing that week or responsible tourism to undiscussed movies that are coming here on the people that they are meeting here or have to be responsible to make sure that you know we sort out our distributors in circle is responsible and of you know. 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 didnt be something that is a holistic approach that we need to take at least. You know responsible through the board on the ministry ok what these policies already in place ill come back and ask about implementation but i want to go back to something that to 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. Discouraging because like we were talking out of 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 a bad Leader People sensitizing south officials also 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 because at the end of the day these 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 and even though were talking that opportunities are there but we still have 41. 5 percent who are still unemployed ok let me speak to come back to you kenya is musician is a part of the can you think when its a pull console this is of the in the region where were at and hes one of the representatives so whos already you doing to make sure the 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 you recently have called up. Towards him for going to prison for a pair of arbitrator 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 you have to understand the importance of tourism and the role it plays in this country tourism 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 passion and we have to accept the reality it is about time for young people to use their creative james and most of the people in gate industry these are not gambians. These are not. A small number of engage in this thing and normally when you ask them they would basically on poverty you know but the thing is that you have to use. One like me ive been working in the Tourism Industry for quite a long time and i know the industrial importance of the industry and the good 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 the 2nd highest foreign income earner in this country so what youre seeing cannot be overstated but kill is with hearing that these tax regime of those who are engaging in it and not gonna use true only. 1st of all i would just like to put a pinpoint on something before i forget which is really a force in sex tourism and that came from the highest authorities within the state and that was when recently a norwegian paedophile was pardoned 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 coming from a poor being approved by the Justice Minister under the watch of the executive. To his excellence he himself i think that alone is an insult towards the efforts to fight against sex tourism because if a norwegian who is just like more than 46 years old who came on holiday and was put into jail and was arrested and locked up for committing sexual offenses towards a minor and that person is apartment while you have example read because young people who are arrested over small we still locked up then that does not even give hope 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 mr john because i think that relates directly to you the tourism offenses act which was mentioned earlier what does it say about accused like that and what sort of message to send i havent seen feeling star like when i heard the guy was actually what mrs b. On me its be undiminished of which was 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 look part of the ministry saying it was beyond you so who should be dealing with ok what i can say is. When it was reported we have used the means that we have on that it was unlocked actually is to address the guard and take him for prosecution which was our limit and then. Gone by the executive that is why i what i what i said its beyond us by equally i mean share the same sadness with them that this guy is just not. If. You would spend most of your life you will come to the only you have something yeah just think that its a disgrace that our gambian government were part of a pedophile and like he said if the 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 its 41. 5 percent young people that are unemployed the issue is we need to start creating arch pursuers 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 of well 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 is like maybe a 500. 00 tourists from russia will come theyll stay at the Sheraton Hotel theyll eat there theyll party there they do everything that maybe they might come out for something but that they stay there so where do the market benefits what are the taxable one of the little peanut lady benefit you know its so when you talk about tourism and you want to do this part accept a reason how does it help the people then you can start privatizing the beaches and telling the people they cant even go in the their beaches like they do in jamaica so we have a lot to do with gambia this is a new gambit lets not allow all time thinking in green now do were supposed to do to make sure the youth of the 1st priority ok i want to do something that you said earlier which is that the people participating in these illegal activities are not gambians and i just want to clarify if its true or not you know they are gambling is as a matter of fact its only maybe between maybe the 1015 years that weve had an influx of selling in libraries and nigerians what about the bomb situation weve been having i live in the camp at our friends who got me those 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 so what im saying and imagine an ordinary family might have minimum of 4 kids. 25. 00 a month so if you come to a place like santa maria 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 this is our one of our only places that we have if i want to go to a regular party is around if i want to go to a club is around this year this is decentralized this is the only place that we 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 you automatically influence but maybe if gambia had like us that were meant for tourism more places for people to entertain themselves. Example as a young person i like coming here. I get harassed i got to show my id maybe i get told i thought i cant can someone explain well been talking about this for a while this is a 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 that 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 regulatory measures just so that because this place is dominated by tourists and so they want to put a lot of protection on it but also because of that some of the gambian also are also deprived deprived from accessing their place if you look at especially when its tourism season so what i just want to say and rather my own part. Is that we have a lot of potential like the one town 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 viruses that comes with being unemployment this is the main reason why you will find growing up girls who are fit enough to be walking in certain places you find them sitting in some gambia and also goes to other young people as well so if we start investing in young people and believe in. 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 number where you understand that to work at the craft market which is just behind here can you tell me how tourism has changed your life to look. A lot positive in the. East. And in the country like the Coffee Market here. But what happens in the low season like now low season being when its summertime in the north and hemisphere what happens to your business and does the government coming to question you. Susan. It is one of the biggest business. Killer is i want to come back to you because were talking about the benefits no one can see how 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 because i dont do Many Gambians want to invest into our country but due to lack of finance we have to do it so most of the people on this business are foreigners ok yeah so again we in st louis benefiting the real owners of foreigners there gentrification happening here well to be honest some partially but then remember we used to live in a dictatorship and a lot of investors who could have really invested in a lot of wealthy gambians who could actually buy this whole place up you know a lot of people fair to invest because of the investment environment here in the gambia 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 on the other side as far busy as participating in the tourism we have to understand weve got a list of the benefits 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 its these hotels that benefit the most you know and the top operators they charge at high rates they come with the all inclusive packages the benefits that the gambian which are her tips that she would get you know from one not inclusive package she would get a form inclusive package and then to even the work conditions of these by the pharmacy because i went to a lot of shops where ive seen 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 of their working conditions lets ask the people who are actually in it factor youre seeing show every time this is can you give me an example through things. Like really we walk in ask features and at the same patterns will be inside it you can see the wind in the key can. Be a place its should be at least have a ventilation but they are just like even have it would be hard to well be doing. With the money and its always less just to give you an idea of the gambino is truly hot and humid you can see how much im sweating so to work in the kitchen with dont think elation must be too difficult this also sounds familiar to you this is because its true because i went. During the season to have a whole lot of. Money and years of the only other bass which increased ventilator and everything which you know at least it would help because we were waiting. For. The managers of the owners of the. Salaries we cringe because they have got ourselves here which you know. At least. It was not in. Ok so let me go to mr putin 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. To the minister with the minimum wage for 44 people working in the industry is something that we find here is the law. If you ask people to pay 1500 to a waiter they will go for the dissident on 1500. Something like that im not very good at math so if you actually are 2 people to pay 1500 as a basic salary then you and mr. Stewart understand 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 a very nice start that would actually like any other. Youre being accused of campaigning yeah so yeah yeah yeah i mean is that would keep me from my occasionally hears about it ok i was there i was in that forum and i can attest to that but like really disappointed with my. You know you just what i would start to tell my bird argue proper hearings start you know dont wait for people to create a notice and i guarantee you have it. Dont you dont you. Know what im saying is that you can be doing across the country i once told one artist playing with my point tell me what i told trying to land hes my contemporary thats how you can. Go to school. With the schools what you are seeing the negative things that you are seeing here try to. Do your community you have to take. With regard to the police. Most of the governors are limbaugh ok so. Dark you need to allow me to do my job being so let me let me allow you to respond and then im going to come back to you when he was saying i want to go back to the discrimination and the profiling which happens to a lot of young danby and get all youth thats something that ive experienced im not its not allegations but you know the automatic response to be that was a different generation this is a new new were going to this new generation within like like a couple of months ago the same thing happened you seem like you are judged based on your previous whether you are 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 im humble you know i may get judged and discriminated for being a. Guy who are the majority here who follow the white people where my interest is probably to go to a spark come with a cog all the time not once not twice not 3 times and then you see people who are like farmers and they just passed smoothly nothing happens and i feel like thats insult to me are you saying that foreigners and tourists are treated better than good. No argument about that now when do we agree at the back there do you agree with me. Coming back to me as my response to be that as an artist i use my voice in response to what i meant was same to address those situations because those are all part of and forms of social injustice yeah but you know we heard from was a huge thing that you also have a responsibility it is our he said that most damning is a lame dogs i disagree with that it is most gambian private citizens they have done what weve done to gambia that have gambia where it is because government is not going to. The hotel the brand new poll tells a young gambians demolish the hottie of johnny the was building the hotel bill in the new myself i have nothing thousands of thousands of dollars Sebring International arms are brought about which in spite of budging a kelly i just did miss clam gambia a glam pageant just the other day were constantly using our own personal life to develop projects and programs for young people in this country who do trains i have a foundation where i do you clichy reforming our strength for young people 12 to 18 so dont tell us that i dont damage and i dont take our money turn the cameras over things in their minds here monthlys 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 looking forward so we are 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 gander is not swallowed by the negative effects of tourism and id like to hear from you mr slim. Basically would be gone through as i said because were responsible to disney and also. Because of. People who are working in the industry and also government enforced. You know. I have to question 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. Goes back to the people so that the people will be poor enough to always come back here and explain it one and also for the government to work on all year round i believe that is more opportunities and theres more ways to fix issues that we are facing with the population and a movement of young people were well informed i think we can do anything well so the gambia is where we are a country named after a river and one that has had a very checkered history do you based on what weve heard here these long weeks ago and young people you have the solutions thank you for watching. The back. Would prefer to join terrorists rather than stay with you and she thinks its cool. Maybe i just wanted to rebel because of my agent and is not was kind of trendy i guess i just like. Them things theyre not written down because you can how a father lost his daughter to Islamic State of them and it just helpless. Little or no. 15 minutes on t w. Coach a very tough. Norlin tough news from africa and the world join us on facebook d w africa. Where is home. When your family is scattered across the globe. With the kids to do is to. Turn back to the words gentlemen of the day. The shots family from somalia live around the world to them want to dump needed urgent assistance of. Family start october anything on d w. D c or go 5 keys to see for food. Keep clean to prevent contamination. Draw and cook foods to avoid cross contamination. Cook served to kill microorganisms. Keep food safe temperatures cold to prevent bacterial growth. Use safe water and safe Raw Materials to avoid content. Producers are the ones primarily responsible for the safety of the food. But you can protect yourself and your family from diseases and the whole pipeline the 5 keys to seafood food use them you also have a role to play. Good. This is deja vu news live from berlin violence returns to the streets of Hong Kong Chinese spy a Water Cannons and tear gas at some point this is through petrol bombs they set fire to barricades that was off to prodemocracy demonstrators defied the police back to march through the city. And growing attacks for saudi arabia to cut in hoffas crude Oil Production the Worlds Largest Oil Processing facility was states ablaze by the assault the rebels from yemen have claimed responsibility but they
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