Political Perspective
By: GWEN LISTERALL RIGHT, so I'm not a big fan of beauty pageants or whatever politically correct titles they're given these days, but I'm astounded at how even a near non-event such as this can turn into a political bunfight par excellence that requires, yes, even Ministerial intervention in an attempt to sort it out as if it is some kind of priority issue.
THE Ms Malaika was trumpeted as some sort of major pan-African
event with the HIV-AIDS issue tagged on to give it some kind of
moral acceptability (or perhaps in an attempt by organisers to get
funding), but now the competition in Namibia has degenerated into a
heated controversy with judges, independent and otherwise, who
didn't quite understand their role; poky potential queens who feel
left out in the cold; and a public left dazed and confused by the
whole debacle.
And, of course, the whole thing has also set in motion Namibia's
notorious gossip grapevine, a formidable machine by any standards!
Now the buzz is about who's sleeping with whom; what ethnic group
has been favoured by which judges; why South African performers and
musicians were put on show rather than local counterparts; whether
money has passed hands from whoever to whatever in the interests of
a certain outcome; and so it goes.
A number of eminent companies in Namibia jumped on the beauty
bandwagon, and hopefully the parastatals or SOEs among them have
good reason for their spending priorities on 'social
responsibility' projects of this nature, as they now have egg on
their faces for buying themselves a portion of the fracas.
By some great stroke of fate, our Government didn't partake
financially (I think...) so one might have hoped they would be
exempt from all the muck flying about.
But Health Minister Dr Libertina Amathila is, of course, patron
of the event, so the whole bizarre circus kind of rubs off on
Government after all.
What is most amazing to me is not that the pageant was held at
all, because beauty extravaganzas tend to have popular appeal and
there's money to be made from them too, but how quickly things tend
to degenerate into much fingerpointing and mudslinging and taking
of sides in the whole messy affair.
Much like our politics.
In fact the whole thing has become quite political in any case,
because certain of our Ministers, and even the Prime himself, were
there in force (as there are some who like to see and be seen at
glamorous events such as these) and ended up bringing in a
government role after all as the patron had to intervene in an
attempt to bring order among the chaos.
It is perhaps noteworthy that disintegration and fragmentation
seem to happen so frequently in Namibia.
We are supposed to be a united nation.
Obviously that's a myth because we are divided into all kinds of
people, and there's nothing wrong with that.
In political terms, divisions continually perpetuate themselves
in an amoeba-like manner, as parties split, regroup, rejoin,
reunite, disperse, and so it goes on.
But must we also fight and fragment ourselves over even the
simplest of issues? If the idea behind this continental initiative
was truly to give a boost to the anti-HIV-AIDS battle, then
somewhere between the lines that noble goal has been lost sight
of.
And that's the sad thing about it all.
Also, one would have expected to see NGOs in HIV-AIDS involved
in one way or another or to have been given a platform at such a
gala event, but that apparently wasn't the case.
This is quite strange, given that ostensibly a key role of the
Ms Malaika is to be an ambassador in the campaign to prevent
HIV-AIDS.
So much for the fight against HIV-AIDS, which now has Libertina
scuttling around to reconcile the warring parties in the sorry
outcome to an event that was organisationally flawed from the
outset from the judging point of view.
What can I, or anyone else say? This is beauty politics,
Namibian-style!
And, of course, the whole thing has also set in motion Namibia's
notorious gossip grapevine, a formidable machine by any standards!
Now the buzz is about who's sleeping with whom; what ethnic group
has been favoured by which judges; why South African performers and
musicians were put on show rather than local counterparts; whether
money has passed hands from whoever to whatever in the interests of
a certain outcome; and so it goes. A number of eminent companies in
Namibia jumped on the beauty bandwagon, and hopefully the
parastatals or SOEs among them have good reason for their spending
priorities on 'social responsibility' projects of this nature, as
they now have egg on their faces for buying themselves a portion of
the fracas. By some great stroke of fate, our Government didn't
partake financially (I think...) so one might have hoped they would
be exempt from all the muck flying about. But Health Minister Dr
Libertina Amathila is, of course, patron of the event, so the whole
bizarre circus kind of rubs off on Government after all. What is
most amazing to me is not that the pageant was held at all, because
beauty extravaganzas tend to have popular appeal and there's money
to be made from them too, but how quickly things tend to degenerate
into much fingerpointing and mudslinging and taking of sides in the
whole messy affair. Much like our politics. In fact the whole thing
has become quite political in any case, because certain of our
Ministers, and even the Prime himself, were there in force (as
there are some who like to see and be seen at glamorous events such
as these) and ended up bringing in a government role after all as
the patron had to intervene in an attempt to bring order among the
chaos. It is perhaps noteworthy that disintegration and
fragmentation seem to happen so frequently in Namibia. We are
supposed to be a united nation. Obviously that's a myth because we
are divided into all kinds of people, and there's nothing wrong
with that. In political terms, divisions continually perpetuate
themselves in an amoeba-like manner, as parties split, regroup,
rejoin, reunite, disperse, and so it goes on. But must we also
fight and fragment ourselves over even the simplest of issues? If
the idea behind this continental initiative was truly to give a
boost to the anti-HIV-AIDS battle, then somewhere between the lines
that noble goal has been lost sight of. And that's the sad thing
about it all. Also, one would have expected to see NGOs in HIV-AIDS
involved in one way or another or to have been given a platform at
such a gala event, but that apparently wasn't the case. This is
quite strange, given that ostensibly a key role of the Ms Malaika
is to be an ambassador in the campaign to prevent HIV-AIDS. So much
for the fight against HIV-AIDS, which now has Libertina scuttling
around to reconcile the warring parties in the sorry outcome to an
event that was organisationally flawed from the outset from the
judging point of view. What can I, or anyone else say? This is
beauty politics, Namibian-style!