Political Perspective

IT’S NOT clear who coined the phrase that “a nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members”, but it’s a good quote nonetheless.

Several world figures, including Gandhi and Mandela, have said the same thing, albeit in different ways and with distinct emphasis. The former included animals in his definition of the weak and vulnerable, and I would not disagree.

But if we ask the question of Namibia – and such a mantra should indeed be our greatest aspiration as a nation – then the honest answer must be that we record a dismal fail. We are by no means ‘great’ if we use this yardstick of measurement with which to judge ourselves.

We have become not only a violent society, but a cruel one too, and I’m surely not the only one who continues to puzzle over how this came about. Is it our natural state, or the result of a legacy of decades of apartheid, war and/or poverty? We need answers in order to provide solutions.

We are a people who fought for peace and a rights-based society, but we don’t practise what we preach. Instead, we’re angry, frequently intolerant, and lacking in care and compassion for our fellow citizens, most notably women and children. And neither does our animals, domesticated and others, escape our savage ways.

Gender-based violence has reached endemic proportions, and all the awards in the world that we may receive for alleged ‘progress’ in combatting the scourge won’t disguise the fact that it’s actually getting worse. And lately, I’ve noted, the incidents of often vicious and inhumane treatment of children are clearly on the increase, often, sadly, at the hands of parent/s themselves.

Where are our political leaders, the churches, academics, even civil society and others in helping to shine a light on our moral retrogression, and helping us to move forward to a more harmonious existence? Where is the outreach in terms of educating and conscientising people that violence is not the answer?

Where are the family planning efforts, and even an open and honest debate about abortion that isn’t brushed off the table by (mostly male) hypocrites pontificating about the right to life? Lives which some of them create in multiples, yet they don’t care what happens to their many offspring, and leave already powerless and unprotected women to carry both the burden and the cost.

On a GBV network, I’ve seen countless images over the past weeks of children being chained and beaten, scalded with boiling water and even committing suicide, so hopeless is their predicament. Horrific stories that don’t always make the media, and sights so graphic that they turn the stomach.

Thankfully, there are some good Samaritans, including police and others, acting to intervene in many of these cases, but their actions in getting such women and children out of harm’s way are only treating the symptoms, and not the cause of the disease.

Some National Council members targeted by criminals this week demanded VIP protection for themselves. They’ve had a taste of the violence which most ordinary Namibians live with on a daily basis because of a country those same politicians have helped create. Yet, still their concern is for themselves, rather than vulnerable people with no such means of access to safety and security and the official protection which they themselves enjoy.

We have to change our ways, and do so quickly, and put the focus on those who are marginalised instead. And we have to stop the violence and the cruelty at all costs to win back the peace.

* Follow me on Twitter: @GwenLister1

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