Chasing the dots ... One day it had to happen!
By: Chris Smith
There was little me cogitating in the gently increasing warmth of the mid morning breeze, unthawing from the previous nights cold snap and wondering about the beautiful carpet of yellow flowers spreading in front of me but, as we all know, hiding a bunch of nasty thorns! Was there a story here?
Then chewing the literary cud of my BRIC article published the previous day. Should I have given more prominence to Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs who coined the acronym to save editorial space every time emerging economies were mentioned. He certainly did not envisage an institutional structure to emerge from that as he quite quickly pointed out how the grouping should have included others (Mexico, S.Korea, Malaysia?); certainly not the midget South Africa!
Continuing rumination exposed that The Namibian’s excellent proof reader had picked up a couple of typos (thanks again!) but more importantly I saw I had repeated an error brought forward from a recent previous article on world asset control; I said 80% were controlled by 147 “companies” which should have read 737! But then I think the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich with their 37 million database might forgive me! And one of my “customers” had googled and pointed my error by e-mail!
It was then that my e-mail woke up and my editor had sent me a letter – what appeared to be a full broadside upon my capacity and credibility! Even worse, accusing me of lowering the standards of The Namibian. An “institution” I have followed since inception in 1985 and have written for since 2007 in various forms. The next day the letter was prominently displayed (I am glad to say, as it should be) and I had had time to read more rationally and find out more about the author. After all, this is a first after five years, 257 articles and about 150 000 words.
By this time I had re-read, cooled down and realised valid points were raised and some assumptions needed challenging.
So to the author? Well sure as hell he is a guy I want on my side. An Oxford First in economics and management (2012), now at Keble as first year doing his MPhil (Economics), an econometrician and young! A rotten tennis player (Namibia 2007), seriously dabbles in the waters of the Isis and seems to like ice hockey, a sport that, to me, seems all about knocking each other into oblivion rather that chasing the puck! Certainly someone Namibia needs back in the fold although I suspect he may be sucked into the global high flyers world, especially as he appears to be on the UK electoral roll (192.com). Thus my responses are as follows.
Firstly I am not a journalist, I write a column based on others’ news and research. I am a product of the UK CAT system, now Manchester Metro where my ancient Higher National, at best, would be equivalent to a 2/2; Additionally I am GSB / UCT PMD trained but in no way pretend to be an academic.
My purpose is to promote peaceful and polite dialogue while admittedly stretching the logic unashamedly. Is this hysteria? I call it adventurism and look at earlier articles on transaction taxes, the property market creating future chaos and others – my apparent madness was ...? But yes, such grape shot thinking can be criticised. But all done quite openly with a critical e-mail, quite often used by readers. An enjoyable activity but as an independent no way intending to badly flavour The Namibian’s standards.
Equally, my English grammer, once criticised as stiff and difficult to understand by Namibians, I have loosened it up for their benefit; this has been appreciated but does open me up for criticism perhaps. I can’t keep all happy. As for conspiracy theories being promoted, well anyone who had suggested the emerging criminal activities of global entities, especially financial institutions before 2008, would certainly be found guilty but now? The truth emerges.
Referencing? I accept guilt as space sometimes requires leaving things out for which I apologise but I am surprised Rashid was unaware of the ATNI indices of the 25 major companies as it is funded by the Gates and Welcome operations in the UK. But again, readers only have to ask, and do.
As for unlinked events. Well let’s see what happens in Qatar, Rio and how China progresses as it slowly strangles in its own environment.
I hope this response answers Rashid’s criticisms as comments from such a source are to be valued and while it is easy to destroy, building a consensus is difficult. Long live Namibia. Fancy coffee next time you come home? I hope the charge of lowering standards is answered and removed?
csmith@mweb.com.na