The Solution To Rape And Murder

THE President, the police, parents, community leaders, private individuals and civil society groups are all asking the same question: What’s wrong with Namibian men?

The answer is that they don’t worry too much about penalties because they have nothing to lose. No education, no job, no prospect to ever improve their lives. Quite a few Namibian men are not living much more comfortably than prisoners in Windhoek Central.
Do you really believe no husband in Monaco (statistical murder rate: zero) would ever think of beating up his wife? Does anyone think that there is no man in Japan (3rd least crime-ridden territory in the world) ever to be aroused by neighbour’s under-age daughter? Why do the men in Austria and Norway (lowest murder rates in Europe, 29 times less than Namibia) not stab each other in the pub? Are they never angry?
It is because they have a lot to lose. They have a comfortable income that gives them the freedom to shape their own lives, a freedom they will lose if they go to prison. Their income is there because they have been skilled and educated, for free, paid by their fellow citizens’ taxes.
Death penalty, karate classes for girls, clearing riverbeds, and the umpteenth prevention workshop - nothing is going to help eradicating violent crime. The only chance is in developing an educated and skilled populace.
Unfortunately this is not a short-term goal. It might take several generations to achieve that. It took more than 1,000 years in Central Europe (the entire Middle Ages) to arrive at civilised and humane societies.
Let’s get the education sector right and work on economic upliftment. Give people something to lose. Only then they will perceive prison as a threat.

Peter Gallert
Windhoek

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