Albinos, Cockroaches And Pastors In The 2005 Chat Shows of NBC

THE Chat Shows of 2005 are a fine example of the status of the NBC, which in itself serves as an example of the situation in Namibia as a whole.

The technical staff could not manage an acceptable technical standard of transmission. The telephone module was not working properly during the whole year.The moderators were not able to control the shows as it should be done.The technical quality of the sound was lousy.One could even hear very often the electronic noise of the studio clock giving an unwanted signal every second over the air.The start of the shows were delayed every now and then by “technical hiccups”, as they are called by the NBC personnel.The daily prattler – one morning he was on air 4 times – gave frequently funny lectures about his unique view of – especially American – historical events.He impressed the amused listener by saying that the USA paid US$200 million to depose the Czar of Russia, their ally at that time in World War I.A second daily busybody said that she met a pastor freshly released from prison after having served his sentence.He got – according to her – his ideas/education in prison.She proposed that engineers and other academics should be educated there in the same way and thus close the gap in Namibia of much-needed specialists in every field.Another daily participant tried to characterise the British Prime Minister and the American President as criminals.At the same time he praised the Palestinians, who built, according to his knowledge, 70 km-long tunnels to kill the Jews.The presenter of the show was delighted.He did not interfere with nonsensical hate speech.When the whites were called albinos and asked to leave Africa during one evening session, the same excited presenter repeated this statement from a prominent but obviously frustrated unionist, intoxicated that evening at least by his own words, on the next morning show.This was the lowest professional level shown by a moderator during the whole year.The recordings indicate, that with the Avid scandal in court sessions, the shows became much more lively.New participants, party hacks and others gave their refreshing views.Controversial points were raised and thoroughly discussed.However, if one dares to oppose a statement of one of the champions of the shows, one might be attacked vehemently and called names like cockroach or be threatened by the leader of the ‘peoples’ parliament’ by being told: “I know your name, I know where you work”.Let us hope that in 2006 the technical standard is improved and that the shows can be moderated in a way which reflects the propagated goals of the Namibian Government, namely reconciliation and the positive development of Namibia.Japie Van Wyk SwakopmundThe telephone module was not working properly during the whole year.The moderators were not able to control the shows as it should be done.The technical quality of the sound was lousy.One could even hear very often the electronic noise of the studio clock giving an unwanted signal every second over the air.The start of the shows were delayed every now and then by “technical hiccups”, as they are called by the NBC personnel.The daily prattler – one morning he was on air 4 times – gave frequently funny lectures about his unique view of – especially American – historical events.He impressed the amused listener by saying that the USA paid US$200 million to depose the Czar of Russia, their ally at that time in World War I.A second daily busybody said that she met a pastor freshly released from prison after having served his sentence.He got – according to her – his ideas/education in prison.She proposed that engineers and other academics should be educated there in the same way and thus close the gap in Namibia of much-needed specialists in every field.Another daily participant tried to characterise the British Prime Minister and the American President as criminals.At the same time he praised the Palestinians, who built, according to his knowledge, 70 km-long tunnels to kill the Jews.The presenter of the show was delighted.He did not interfere with nonsensical hate speech.When the whites were called albinos and asked to leave Africa during one evening session, the same excited presenter repeated this statement from a prominent but obviously frustrated unionist, intoxicated that evening at least by his own words, on the next morning show.This was the lowest professional level shown by a moderator during the whole year.The recordings indicate, that with the Avid scandal in court sessions, the shows became much more lively.New participants, party hacks and others gave their refreshing views.Controversial points were raised and thoroughly discussed.However, if one dares to oppose a statement of one of the champions of the shows, one might be attacked vehemently and called names like cockroach or be threatened by the leader of the ‘peoples’ parliament’ by being told: “I know your name, I know where you work”.Let us hope that in 2006 the technical standard is improved and that the shows can be moderated in a way which reflects the propagated goals of the Namibian Government, namely reconciliation and the positive development of Namibia. Japie Van Wyk Swakopmund