SMSes For 09 Feb 09
n NAMIBIA is the most unregulated country in the world. The gambling industry is a free for the rich at the expense of the financially desperate.
The winnings and loss ratio have never been subjected to regulatory control. In Las Vegas (US) each gambling machine’s winning and loss ratio is subject to government control. Here casinos do as they please. It’s like there is no government for the indigent poor!
Food For Thought
n CAN anyone please tell the nation where the Minister of Health was when the new Labour Act prohibiting labour hire was being passed in the Parliament. How many ARV clinics are going to be idle when the Government takes over those who were employed by Potentia decide not to take the Government offer?
n ON Friday, February 6, I was driving to Okahandja from Otjiwarongo. At around 14h50, a group of Government vehicles in Traffic escort approached from Okahandja. I and the approaching escorting traffic control ahead of the delegation almost collided head on, so carelessly was he driving. Is this lawful? I mean when and how am I to get off the road safely? Who preaches about safe driving on the roads? Who’s to pay for five lives killed on purpose? Please try to improve on this. The first car should go ahead of the others at least about 10 km and driven at lower speed to warn approaching vehicles.
n THE sight of the hostels in Kavango is an indication of a country falling apart. This is but one example of the many we see everyday.
n PRESIDENT Kgalema Montlante (SA) visited the COPE stronghold during the weekend. COPE supporters blocked the president’s convoy and the situation was tense. The president was smart, he started to embrace and shake hands with COPE supporters, greet and spoke to them in friendly and humanly manner thereby diffusing the tense situation. He never called his political opponents traitors or Judas Iscariots. With due respect, can our own president learn from this lesson. Mr Hishoono, do not construe this piece of advice as an insult or disrespect of the president.
Bouquets And Brickbats
n FIRST it was The Namibian versus Apartheid. Now it is The Namibian versus Swapo. This newspaper has been telling it like it is for years. The Apartheid regime hated The Namibian for exposing the atrocities they committed against the people of Namibia. Swapo was then happy that the newspaper exposed the evil deeds of that regime. That was then. Today, post-Apartheid, The Namibian still continues with its responsibilities towards the Namibian people: To tell the truth and expose those who think they can get away with corruption, nepotism, tribalism and all the isms. Swapo Government has decided to put a ban on the buying of The Namibian with Government money. Government officials get the Republikein and New Era for free every day. My guess is that 99% of the officials buy their own copies of The Namibian. This is a free country, Kanana Hishoono of the Swapo Elders cannot call for a ban of SMSes, from a newspaper his party officially “banned”. What he can probably do is to call on all the “loyal party cadres” not to read The Namibian’s SMS section, and tell those who disobey that they are “RDP hibernating in Swapo!”
n AUGETTO Graig, I am a 100% in agreement with your article in Friday’s Weekender. Kasi Music must go. Period. We want Namibian music.
n MUCH love and envy goes to ‘The Rambler’ who tells the blatant truth. He has an aggressive but informed approach to pending public matters. We lack journalists of his calibre reporting and analysing news.
– Ferdinand
n THE junior Mayor of Windhoek City, I am so proud of you. I wish you could become the future president of this country. You are our own Barack Obama. NBC can you include her interview in the seven o’clock news. Van Vuuren you are an inspiration to many true patriotic Namibians.
n IT will not do justice to teachers and the noble job they commit themselves to if not acknowledge! Therefore, I have the honour to compliment and honour the management and staff of the Kiddi Care Kindergarten for their caring supervision and quality teaching! Well done!
Politics In General
n PRESIDENT Barack Obama is the wise Biblical King Solomon of our generation. He accepted the mistake he made without shifting the blame, or pointing fingers (“I screwed up”), and took “personal” responsibility for it. Can our leaders do the same?
n I AM in total agreement with the author of the SMS against an African continental government. It is like one African leader giving the world a lecture on how the global financial crisis started and how it can be stopped. That same leader is leading a country in the worst crisis. The reality is that Africa is nowhere near ready for such a thing.
– Nghiikumbu
n WHAT does continental government entail? Is it borderless Africa or what? Do our leaders have the nation’s blessings to entertain the idea at this stage? If yes, who was consulted, when and where?
n MISTER President, you were asked by CoD during the opening of Parliament some years ago when were you going to make the presidential commission reports available. You responded that you needed more time. Do you still need more Mr President?
n LET me congratulate African leaders particularly SADC leader to make Robert Mugabe agree to form a unity government. My question however, is how can we assist Zimbabwe from economic meltdown, shortage of food and cholera outbreak. I do not think the unity government is the solution to those issues, because it is just an agreement, which will take time to be tackled, while people are suffering on the ground. Africa let as unite and share the little we have. Why do we let our brothers and sisters suffer selling airtime and simple items or is what we call cross border trade?
– Laurentius
Education
n CAN the Education department in the great Kunene explain why some superintendents of the hostels paid allowances, while they have houses which the Government is subsidising for them. Is this not corruption.
n I AM a second-year student at International University of Management in Windhoek and I want to get feedback from Dr Namwandi, when we will get our refund from the GRN loan last year, because we want to registered so that we can attend classes and we don’t have money.
n UNAM can you give part-time classes at the northern campus because we also want to study like people in Windhoek.
n QUALITY and standards are compromised at Unam. Even though incidents and cases are reported, very often nothing is done. I guess those in charge do not want the management to know. They are hiding it from the management creating an impression that all is well within faculties, centres and departments.
n SHAME on our Government for letting the Eros Girls’ School hostel going this far. Do something about it. It is outrageous to let children live this way.
n AS a concerned learner at Kamwandi Junior Secondary School in Henties Bay, some of the teachers smoke in front of us learners and everywhere especially break time, while they are telling us to stop smoking. Please Kamwandi teachers practise what you preach.
n I STRONGLY believe that high failure rate of Grade 10 learners at Eembahu Combined School in Ondobe circuit, Ohangwena Region, is due to very weak and irresponsible school administration. This school has the same catchment area of learners like other surrounding schools which are performing very well.I think the Ministry of Education should immediately do something because parents who sent their children to that school have been seriously disadvantaged. The majority of our kids are and continues to be in streets
n WHY does Unam not apologise to the many students whose marks have been mixed up. They expect us to pay for remarks or accept these results which do not reflect the students real performance, but are actually denying us to graduate. We are already paying too much and now we have to pay for their mistakes.
From The Regions
n THE problem of flooding within Katima Mulilo town and informal settlement is caused by absence of drainage systems which are not included in the town’s development plans. Roads and buildings are constructed without drainage systems. The open market and the shopping mall are the only good examples of buildings with underground drainage that prevent flooding. Katima town planners should do their work and stop asking for help from central Government every year. The problem is poor planning of underground drainage.
n I AM in support of the SMS proposing a bridge at Okandjengedi Primary School. I lived in Oshakati five years ago and I know exactly what the author is talking about. That school board and management must be dismissed if those poor kids still suffer as they did five years ago. Equally shame on most of the fathers and mothers who drive between Ongwediva and Oshakati without regard for the kids intending to cross the road to the school. Namibia is one of the most uncaring societies in the world.
General
n THE Namibian of Friday February 6 page 5 with regard to “Parliament building, ministries powerless”, the following: Your staff reporter “could not establish whether civil servants in these offices will be on duty today.” I noticed, in most cases, when reporters want to discredit the civil service they appear as ghost writers, i.e. Staff Reporter. It goes without saying that the staff will be in their offices. Maybe it is the norm of some “staff reporters” not to go to work when their offices experience a power cut! Some positive reading will be appreciated from both “staff reporter” and the general public!
– Danzen Isaak
– Firstly, we did not say it as a matter of fact that civil servants will not be on duty. The statement issued by the Parliamentary Secretariat did not say whether civil servants working in the affected offices would be working or not. Secondly, the ‘Staff Reporter’ tried to establish whether affected civil servants would be in their offices, or not, but was unable to track down any civil servant who could provide an answer! Thirdly, it is standard practice to use ‘Staff Reporter’ when a reporter does a press statement, as opposed to an ‘own story’. – Newsdesk
n THE Minister of Health spoke about restructuring of the two Windhoek hospitals. Please do something about the Windhoek Central Hospital nurses’ home. Cleaners, clerks and porters are staying there. It’s no longer a nurses’ home but a single quarters and that is why the place is so dirty. We need a nurses’ home and a safe and clean environment.
n IS it possible for the Ministry of Justice to consider its legal clerks and interpreters for magistrates’ posts. After all these are people, who know the procedures and can be sent for training six months per year. Staff members cannot afford to study full-time because of responsibility they have. Please help them.
n WINDHOEK Municipality, please hear the cry of the residents of Dorado Park Ext 1. In the area of Gemim Street and Delphinius Street there is a riverbed with thick bushes where criminals are hiding to break into our houses! It has become so dangerous that one can’t even go to the road, i.e. Hendrik Witbooi behind us, to catch a taxi. City Police should keep patrolling the area from the morning around 08h00 as those criminals keep hiding under the bushes until they see us leaving for work. Usually they break into our houses in the mornings while it’s quiet! Please City of Windhoek we are paying for all that. Or do you want to see death before you act? We have been phoning your Park Division but nothing happens.
–Debby Lency