Hi folks,

I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of you who took the trouble to
respond to my earlier question about how to deal with e-mail abuse.  I received
a lot of suggestions, and will following-up on the issue.

May I mention that even though some have suggested that we make our archives
private, I think this will be self-defeating, and playing into the hands of
those (e.g. the guy who hauls abuses at subscribers) who maintain that Gambia-L
is one huge conspiracy against the Gambian government.  Second, it is possible
that some present subscribers will forward whatever e-mail message is critical
of the government to whoever they want, and thus creating the possibility that
subscribers willl still be sent insulting messages, even though are archives
are private.

Some have also suggested what I would call the roll-over-and-play-dead option.
Many Gambia-L subscribers have also suggested this, and I simply refuse to do
so.  This is precisely because of the fact that I see no need or reason for me
to organize mylife around the tyranny of another person.  I've thus resolved to
use whatever resources are available to me to make sure this intimidation
stops.  Not only for me, but for the idea that people should be free to speak
their minds in good faith.

Fortunately, I've had one excellent suggestion to take the case to whoever
provides the University of Malaya, or their ISP, an upstream service that
mediates their traffic with the rest of the Internet.  The person also offered
to help me find the relevant upstream service providers, and you can bet I will
be following up on that.  This proves a point:  that there are indeed ways to
be found to deal with such peopl on the Internet, even though they might be
thousands of miles away.

I suppose that's about all.  Again, thanks so much for all your help, and best
wishes.

Sincerely,

Katim S. Touray
[log in to unmask]