Namibia idag

The story of the five young men who stood for 6 days in a Frontier Ace container vessel surprised us all. The occurance of people from impoverished countries endangering their lives at sea in order to get to a first world country is not unusual. But the fact that the destination was Namibia is.
Without money to get passports, fly or take a boat, all five swam to the rudder where an opening for hiding was discovered. If their claims of acting independently and not planning this together is true then I wonder how many Nigerians have reached our shores in a similar fashion. In any case, this situation highlights the impossible challenges some face in Nigeria. “There is no hope in Nigeria. Anywhere else would be better than Nigeria” they said to the Namibian newspaper in Walvisbay. All of them young men between the ages of 18 and 25 the group all alluded to knowing the dangers but nonetheless made the difficult choice to run away.
The five young men are on their way back to Nigeria, albeit unwillingly. For those of my friends who were saying that this just shows us how great Namibia is and that there is a phenomenon known as the ‘Namibian dream’ I have to disagree. Unfortunately this incident is more a reflection of the Nigerian nightmare rather than the Namibian dream.

The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) has been embattled with leadership deficiencies for the last five years. This has been the principle reason why NBC faced problems such as stale programming, technical inadequacies and lack of capacity all resulting in the loss of advertising and loss of TV license payments. But 2009 was the year that NBC make many improvements to its service and it is all thanks mostly to a acting Director General (DG).
Of all the DGs one stands out as the one who has made the most positive changes to the image of the organization. Mathew //Gowaseb, the second last acting DG which was in charge for much of 2009 was the force behind the transformation of the state broadcaster. During his time Mr. //Gowaseb introduced a unique and appealing brand, upgraded existing programmes and created new programmes. The morning programme is only one example of the transformation. Before //Gowaseb it was a bland, rudimentary and average showcase of news and current affairs with an sub-par delivery.
Today it is a well placed festivel of current affairs and news which has become a part of most Namibians mornings under the tagline ‘Good Morning Namibia; bringing you news, views and interviews’. Like the GMN many other programs such as Tupopyeni, Talk of the Nation, Off the hook and the controversial One on One are done by good journalist who are able to lead the discussion and ask intriguing and critical questions. The talents of Ferdinand Muhale and the young Tonateni Shidudu were able to flourish under the acting DG’s tutelage. The biggest problem is that some journalists still don’t know how to engage live callers and often end up rushing them and seeming rude.
And he did this without much fanfare. By all accounts he was the right man for the job. Thanks to his hard work the new DG, Albertus !Aoxamub, inherits a sound organization that is already well into a transformation.

Tsumeb is a ‘never say die’ town about 400 Kilometers north of Windhoek. The copper mines at the town have closed twice in the last 15 years and for a town which exists purely for mining, this has had various economic hardships.
Now the copper mining town will receive a major boost when the new owners of the local smelter, Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals, invests N$ 128 million in the plant. The money will mainly be spent on modernization and upgrading of the smelter. The original smelter was built more than 49 years ago, specifically to treat the concentrates from copper mines around Tsumeb. But since then more than 3 companies including the government mining enterprise Ongopolo Mining have tried to translate the operations into sustainable economic benefits. Dundee claims that they are here to stay. Let us hope so, for the sake of the 400 people employed at the smelter and in extension, all their family members and the town.

The Basic Income Grant has been critized for being unsustainable and being insufficient. Maybe it can be argued to be unsustainable but the sufficiency of the amount may not be justified. N$ 100 for each Namibian may seem like a small amount in fighting poverty but closer analysis may reveal a different story. The truth is that most of the people who will really benefit from this initiative are the rural poor and in a rural setting an N$ 100 can go a very long way. From my independent calculations N$ 100 can afford the following basic commodities a 5 kg of pap, 2.5 kg of brown sugar, 750 ml, cooking oil and 24 cube of chicken stock. For those who are on ARV drugs a meal is very important. The money can also contribute towards transport to health facilities as well as admission fee to health services (N$ 8).
Of course, there are many other things such as logistics and administration that play into the quotation. Since most families in Namibia consist of more than one person over the age of 18 years a average amount of at least N$ 300 will come in per month. And for communities who are well versed with social safety nets such as ‘Aobagu’ this grant is sure to reinvent itself in new ways. For example, imagine that a group of 4 women loaning the money to each other in the ‘Aobagu’ loaning system which will mean that each month a different woman will be able to receive N$ 400. There is a lot of good in BIG and it can give hope to the rural poor.

Spain has been reeling from the recent financial crisis and has been forced into tough and widely unpopular austerity measures. As usual, what happens in one part of the world affects another. This time, the poor economic conditions in Spain means that the Hake industry, which is by far the biggest and most lucrative sector in the Namibian fishing industry, will affect Namibia.
The economic challenges facing Spain, one of the biggest importers of Namibian hake, may negatively affect the industry. Consumers in Spain are spending less due to the cutting of civil servants’ wages and other austerity measures. For Namibia, which has more than 9000 people employed in the hake sector, this has serious economics consequences.

When I heard about the 3 kudus that were running loose in a suburb of Windhoek I had a nice laugh. Imagine doing your laundry and seeing a kudu speed past on the tarred street. Hilarious! When I heard that 2 of the 3 bulls were shot I had a shock. What!?! Do they not have tranquilizer guns? I know the City Police may not have tranquilizer guns but certainly the Nature Conservation ranger should. Hey, but what do I know?
Maybe the meat will go to some of the poorer members of Namibian society who have been hard hit by the winter. One Kudu luckily managed to find its way back to the wild and wont be on the dinner menu. But the sight of a Kudu in the city must be a real treat. Its better to be prepared because you never know what you will see in Windhoek. No wonder tourists walk around with Khaki pants (those with the thousand pockets), a backpack and a big camera.

While women are making strides in business leadership, they are facing challenges in another important sphere; politics. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) calls for at least 50% of women representation in government by 2015. The progress towards this goal has been slow with only a few of the member states meeting the milestones. There are only around 22% of women in cabinet in the region which leaves a lot to be desired.
In Namibia the situation has actually become worse. Since the last cabinet was formed by the president women have dropped from just over 30% to 20%. Lesotho, with 58% of women representation in parliament, is one of the success stories but that country has a constitutional quota in place.
Gender Links, a regional think-tank on gender issues, warns that having more women in key positions does not necessarily translate to better gender relations. South Africa, viewed by many as the big brother in the region, has more women in key political positions but the last elections proved that a clear understanding of gender discourse is still lacking. In addition to this there is still a fear that print and electronic media still do not have the voice of women. For example, only 13% of women are quoted during elections.

Africa has reached a significant landmark in 2010. Half a century ago the first African countries gained their independence and started the walk towards self-determination. This is a year of celebration.
But celebration also calls for reflection. The continent is and certainly should be asking itself many tough questions; what were the prospects 50 years ago, how is the situation today and more importantly and more importantly what does the future look like? In addition, peculiar developments such as the China/Africa situation, UN security council representation as well as the emergence of the mobile networks are discussions which should take precedence as we look towards the future.
The reality for many countries 50 years down the line is widespread poverty, war and tribal conflict, lack of capacity among civil servants, corruption etc. Many argue that the Southern African countries are doing better than the ‘older’ nations. This beckons the question ‘are younger countries more mature in terms of development?’. The biggest challenges for the region are low or decreasing levels of GDP per capita, low levels of GDP, relatively high levels of budget deficits and interest rates and external debt burdens as well as low levels of savings and investment. All these have contributed to high poverty levels. This is why regional groupings such as SADC are trying to promote regional integration. It is important for the continent to learn from the past and move forward. Easier said than done.

Using mobile phones to surf the internet is not anything new, even in Namibia. Among youth and young adults the trend is increasing. In Namibia Facebook has reaching the tipping point and it is not surprise that most young people are connected on the biggest social network out there. The interesting thing is that a biggest way of connecting, especially among the youth, is by mobile phone.
For the moment this young market is not being regularly and deliberately engaged through this medium. There are some sms competitions where you can win prizes and cash if you. The Namibian Press Agency has marketed a plan to provide subscribers with news on their phone. For years I have been using cellphone banking of the First National Bank to pay my bills and avoid the long lines in the bank. The Ministry of health along with partners have a sms service where you can sms your name of your town and get a sms that tells you all the VCT centres in your town where you can get tested for HIV. The technology is here and the possibilities are endless. Somewhere down the line organizations will use the technology in smarter ways to really engage their target market.

It is good to see that women are taking leadership roles in the world of business. In Namibia women have made great strides and today there are many women in leadership positions.
There are two women that lead the pack. On July 1st 2010, Nangula Uandje not only became the first female Managing Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers, but also the first women to take up that position. Martha Namundjebo-Tilahun, a local business woman and co-owner of the currently being developed Hilton hotel, has become the second woman president of the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI).
At a local level women are very involved in business and often are the ones who start up small and medium enterprises. They can be seen from the Soweto Market to the Prosperita industrial area selling their affordable lunches (vetkoek, pap and Okapana -small pieces of meat-). Others, like my mother, are tailors and work from their living rooms. They have strong business principles and can save provide for the basics in the home and save some money (statistically not the ones to waist their income on alcohol). Through their entrepreneurship they are able to put their children through school and more importantly, instill a sense of work morale in them. Ueaandja and Namundjebo-Tilahun are trailblazers but I expect us to see more women take up leadership positions in years to come, despite the many challenges they may face.

http://www.ncci-namibia.org/