Transforming hope to supreme logic ...

In 2004, a fairly young unknown Barack Obama stepped onto the steps of the Democratic Party's National Congress (DNC) to give a key note address to the delegates who gathered in a hall in Denver, Colorado. His main task was to give democrats hope to vote for John Kelly in the run up to elections against republication George H.W Bush.

He said, “hope is not a blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the side lines or shirking from a fight.

Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it”, in a speech that also served as an introduction into American politics.

Supreme logic is the logic we need to use to make sure that young Namibians can one day rise to the challenge and build a better future for themselves.

The fight for a better Namibia will not be given to us by anyone, but by us, by the men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is and who have the courage to remake our country as it is intended to be.

It's only how we play the game that may see us lose.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.

We are the ones we've been waiting for; we are the change that we seek.

Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up, together we resolve that a great nation must care for the welfare and equality of everyone and uplift people from life's worst hazards and misfortunes, if not, we might approach a blind spot.

The Harrambee Prosperity Plan is the most far-reaching weapon to fight in our modern time, but individuals are mercilessly using this plan against the masses.

It can add fear and hopelessness in the psyche of the people. It means that what the enemies of progress cannot do, individuals are doing.

You can understand what trust and hope will you have in people, who made you suffer from fear and hopelessness. How fortunate for the government that people don't trace the main problem.

There is no critical thinking except in giving and executing commands. If it were otherwise human society could have exist. Nelson Mandela taught us, “If u want to shine like a sun, first you have to burn like it.”

For we have always understood that when times change, so must we, that fidelity to our founding principles require new responses to new challenges and that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. To avoid being mistaken for a sell-out, choose your friends carefully.

The more politically and educationally minded, black or white, the more you get closer to solutions.

The time to fix our broken system is now. We need stronger enforcement in the state and at the workplaces. But for reforms to work, we also must respond to the long lasting problems that hinders our development.

When we have available serviced land, we must give it to our nationals for housing before foreigners receive a single square metre of that land for investment.

From the day I understood our situation, I've been told that it's too ambitious to address our challenges; and effort would be too contentious and that we should just put things on hold for a while. For those who make this claim: How long should we wait? How long should we put country's future on hold? You might be locked in a world not of your own making, but you still have a claim on how it is shaped.

You still have responsibilities.

What if we focus on the needs of the entire population? Let us not only eliminate the challenges hanging over our heads, but help all the people groaning under the yoke of poverty.

I have high regard and respect for those men who erased the disgrace from the foreheads of our nation, the likes of Dr. Elijah Ngurare, Prof.

Diescho and many other unforgettable leaders and activists. A once famous quote states, “democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy.

If I advance; follow me. If I retreat; kill me. If I die; avenge me. It is better to live one day as a lion than one-hundred years as a sheep”.



*Jeisn.S. Ashimbanga is second year Bachelor of Education (Honours) student at the University of Namibia