LETTERS -
| 2013-07-26Forge New Camaraderie
AFTER an absence of 34 years, I returned to Namibia this winter. I have been travelling within the country here and there, north, central and south renewing old friendships and acquiring new ones.
I have been told that the spirit of solidarity, community and camaraderie is not what it used to be before independence 23 years ago. The let-down is palpable.
I understand the new nation is faced with many challenges: deep poverty, relatively high unemployment, weaknesses in the educational system, (in some sectors) lack of skilled labour, an impending electrical power crunch, domestic or gender-based violence, (in some areas) an insecure water delivery infrastructure, inadequate supply of affordable housing, elitism, corruption, even (very sadly) starvation and (most sadly) infanticide.
Such ills are not conducive to human dignity, which was one of the goals of the liberation struggle and must forever continue to be the aspiration of a religiously-minded people.
Are the above-enumerated ills not the new enemy? If so, aluta continua. Before independence the spirit of solidarity helped defeat colonialism and apartheid. Namibians can meet this new enemy with their brain power and – just as they did so many years ago – with sisterly and brotherly power too so that all, in solidarity, may feel fully the fruits of freedom.
Timothy Guile
By email
I have been told that the spirit of solidarity, community and camaraderie is not what it used to be before independence 23 years ago. The let-down is palpable.
I understand the new nation is faced with many challenges: deep poverty, relatively high unemployment, weaknesses in the educational system, (in some sectors) lack of skilled labour, an impending electrical power crunch, domestic or gender-based violence, (in some areas) an insecure water delivery infrastructure, inadequate supply of affordable housing, elitism, corruption, even (very sadly) starvation and (most sadly) infanticide.
Such ills are not conducive to human dignity, which was one of the goals of the liberation struggle and must forever continue to be the aspiration of a religiously-minded people.
Are the above-enumerated ills not the new enemy? If so, aluta continua. Before independence the spirit of solidarity helped defeat colonialism and apartheid. Namibians can meet this new enemy with their brain power and – just as they did so many years ago – with sisterly and brotherly power too so that all, in solidarity, may feel fully the fruits of freedom.
Timothy Guile
By email
