EDITORIAL: Citizenship in a republic

In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt, in his speech ‘Citizenship in a Republic’, outlined a person’s duty as a citizen through the exercise of free will.His wisdom came to mind yesterday when President Hage Geingob announced that starting tomorrow, no one will be mandated to wear a mask. The consequences of this announcement are both exciting and scary.Exciting because it means, at least symbolically, that there we are winning against the prevalence of Covid-19 in our midst, and scary because we do not know what the removal of masks will do to us in the coming weeks and months. It’s fear of the unknown.Starting tomorrow, it’s every man for himself and God for all of us. Government will not police what distance individuals keep between each other or force us to sanitise our hands.Covid has lived with – and within - us for exactly two years from the fateful day it was first detected in Namibia in March 2020.How we circumvent our way past it is no longer in debate as we have mastered its behaviour, danger and movement.No amount of institutional caution and logistical preparedness will quell the spread of this virus if individuals simply look away and act as if it is 1998.Individual accountability is the essence of good citizenship, as Roosevelt attempted to put it. The choice to live or perish is our own.

EDITORIAL: Citizenship in a republic

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-01

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EDITORIAL: Citizenship in a republic

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-01

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