EDITORIAL

“Contrasting beautiful Namibia…” So goes our national anthem. In the national song, contrast was in reference to the country’s landscapes like the red dunes of Erongo, the white dusty land of Etosha, the desert in the west and the thick forests in the east.

This week, Namibian media exposed the new, uncomfortable meaning of ‘contrast’ in our country.

As if rehearsed, the headlines shone light on the grand thievery of Fishrot millions that ended up in the pockets of a few greedy individuals while highlighting the everyday struggle of the rest of the citizens.

Namibian Sun, for example, reported this week that Fishcor, the state fishing company at the centre of the Fishrot scandal, had not paid its employees this week because it has no financial means to do so.

These are employees whose bosses are in jail over theft, while their children – who had to return to school this week – became the sacrificial lambs in the web of this greed.

While national resources are used by these thieves to acquire luxury farms and holiday mansions in Cape Town and Dubai, children at Oshamukweni Combined School in Ohangwena were spotted this week making beds with sticks in parent-sponsored corrugated iron sheet hostels. That is what ‘contrast’ means in Namibia today.

Despite these glaring and painful realities, there are those hell-bent on painting a glorious picture of how wonderful our country has been to all those who live in it. Imagine that.