Going back to the original ideals
It's not too late to salvage Namibia from the jaws of predatory tendencies threatening our existence as a nation.
Think of the ideal Namibia we had in mind prior to independence. We dreamed of a nation where ground has been cleared for everyone to find themselves and thrive.
We pictured a country of endless possibilities, enabled by its massive resource endowment, a caring government and a people united under a huge banner of patriotism.
Indeed we had in mind a republic in the true sense of the word - a form of government in which the country is considered a “public matter”, not the private concern or property of the rulers.
Yet every day, Chris Hani gets increasingly vindicated when he said: “What I fear is that the liberators [would] emerge as elitists who drive around in Mercedes Benzes and use the resources of this country to live in palaces and to gather riches.”
Is it really too late to go back to the roots and take stock of what we have done wrong so much that youth unemployment stands at just below 50%? Who imagined that three decades after independence we would have people dying from hepatitis E, a class disease confined to impoverished areas where potable water and ablution facilities are non-existent?
Namibia is a land of plenty, inhabited by citizens whose majority do not know where the next day's meal will come from. To thrive, one must align with this or that politician or their political party. It's a tragedy.
Think of the ideal Namibia we had in mind prior to independence. We dreamed of a nation where ground has been cleared for everyone to find themselves and thrive.
We pictured a country of endless possibilities, enabled by its massive resource endowment, a caring government and a people united under a huge banner of patriotism.
Indeed we had in mind a republic in the true sense of the word - a form of government in which the country is considered a “public matter”, not the private concern or property of the rulers.
Yet every day, Chris Hani gets increasingly vindicated when he said: “What I fear is that the liberators [would] emerge as elitists who drive around in Mercedes Benzes and use the resources of this country to live in palaces and to gather riches.”
Is it really too late to go back to the roots and take stock of what we have done wrong so much that youth unemployment stands at just below 50%? Who imagined that three decades after independence we would have people dying from hepatitis E, a class disease confined to impoverished areas where potable water and ablution facilities are non-existent?
Namibia is a land of plenty, inhabited by citizens whose majority do not know where the next day's meal will come from. To thrive, one must align with this or that politician or their political party. It's a tragedy.
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Namibian Sun
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