An Achilles heel
It’s an election year, and of course the Swapo-led government will be standing on its toes to pick low-hanging fruit that will be paraded for all and sundry to marvel at.
It’s a time for successes to either be conjured or bad fruit to be plastered over, so that a shiny slant can be laid bare for public consumption.
Incumbency has manifold advantages, as the levers of state are worked to ensure that traditional voting bases and others know that the ruling party has done this or that. This coming election is, however, being fought in a time of grave economic despair and growing joblessness.
Ordinary families, where breadwinners are now unemployed, are suffering, while those with jobs - especially the middle-class - are being bled dry by taxes.
We are taking loans left right and centre for billion-dollar government projects that will rightfully benefit the country’s future, but offer no immediate relief for the scourge of joblessness, while foreign firms dominate the bidding.
Populism is on the rise, as is always the case when suffering creeps in and questions are asked about why key issues remain unaddressed or have been kicked into touch.
Tribalism is rearing its ugly head, as people engage on platforms like social media and begin to play the blame-game. It is hunger and a growing feeling of hopelessness and a resignation to our fates that drives this. There are other elements to contextualising the environment in which political contestation takes place this year, and these have been written about ad nauseam.
At the core, however, is the continued performance of an economy that cannot create jobs, but is rather shedding them and spreading a growing sense of doom.
It, after all, is not about percentages sliding up or down on a graph, but rather the realities facing Namibian families who are battling to survive, as even graduates’ march through the streets while flashy government cars whizz by.
It’s a time for successes to either be conjured or bad fruit to be plastered over, so that a shiny slant can be laid bare for public consumption.
Incumbency has manifold advantages, as the levers of state are worked to ensure that traditional voting bases and others know that the ruling party has done this or that. This coming election is, however, being fought in a time of grave economic despair and growing joblessness.
Ordinary families, where breadwinners are now unemployed, are suffering, while those with jobs - especially the middle-class - are being bled dry by taxes.
We are taking loans left right and centre for billion-dollar government projects that will rightfully benefit the country’s future, but offer no immediate relief for the scourge of joblessness, while foreign firms dominate the bidding.
Populism is on the rise, as is always the case when suffering creeps in and questions are asked about why key issues remain unaddressed or have been kicked into touch.
Tribalism is rearing its ugly head, as people engage on platforms like social media and begin to play the blame-game. It is hunger and a growing feeling of hopelessness and a resignation to our fates that drives this. There are other elements to contextualising the environment in which political contestation takes place this year, and these have been written about ad nauseam.
At the core, however, is the continued performance of an economy that cannot create jobs, but is rather shedding them and spreading a growing sense of doom.
It, after all, is not about percentages sliding up or down on a graph, but rather the realities facing Namibian families who are battling to survive, as even graduates’ march through the streets while flashy government cars whizz by.
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Namibian Sun
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