SMSes for Friday 03 August 2012

SMS Of The Day
*So payday is a national holiday for all the civil servants?

Food for Thought*LADY May – from national embarrassment to national legend. You gotta love Namibia!Bouquets and Brickbats*I FAIL to understand people who complain about anything (in articles), but don’t suggest any possible alternatives. My kudos to Gwen Lister for she always gives her personal ideas and solutions on whatever she criticises.*NO water at Gammams Primary School for weeks but no one cares as long as street names can be changed and statues are put up. Rather do some good for a change than wasting what little money there is on renaming towns and streets. Mr President please take a tour through the country and see how the poor are living. They voted for you – do something for them. Clean drinking water and houses will be more appreciated than Lüderitz getting a new name!*I’M amazed at how much dishonesty there has been at the 2012 Olympics already. There’s a swimmer being tested for drugs, badminton players throwing games … I’m starting to doubt it really was the queen jumping out that helicopter!- Beulah EnglishHappy Birthday*THE best and most beautiful things in world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Ecclesiastes 3: 11. Happy birthday Dr Hage Geingob. Man on a Horse*IF it was April 1st I would have thought it was an April Fool’s joke: the Reiterdenkmal removed! The rest of the world keeps monuments, buildings and cultural things. They maintain, restore and protect them for they are all historical and aesthetically pleasing. The removal of this monument shows the general trend in Africa where breaking down is the order of the day rather than building and constructing and preserving. You cannot undo history and trying to is in contrast to reconciliation. Build new things but leave the old.- Upset, Swakopmund*100 YEARS ago the ‘Reiter’ was built and paid for by private people to remember the lives of men, women and children lost in that war. Two years ago private funding helped to move it. No government was ever involved financially. I am sure enough private funds can be raised to erect statues all around the museum to honour and remember every life lost in that war. Please Namibians let us complete history, not destroy it.*UNDERSTAND and respect that the Government wants to replace the Reiterdenkmal with a statue of President Nujoma. But let’s not destroy the historic statue completely. After all it remains part of Namibia’s history. albeit a shameful history!*MY personal opinion about these name changes and the removal of the Reiterdenkmal is that the Government is wasting time and money. There are bigger problems to worry about – teenage moms dumping babies, people that are homeless and starving and the crime rate in Namibia. But you decided to look past that and focus on a statue that pains you? *YOU want to remove the Reiterdenkmal because tourists walk past the ridiculously expensive Korean style Independence Museum to photograph this minimalist statue. You are jealous. Please go for some therapy to improve your self esteem that appears to be the core of the problem. This is not aimed at a person – but all persons who share this mindset.*I SALUTE President Pohamba for a great and meaningful decision to replace the Reiterdenkmal statue of a German cavalryman at the Independence Museum with the statue of our founding President Sam Nujoma. It was salt in the wound seeing that statue of a German man who brutally killed our people. Thanks Mr President.*NAMIBIAN leaders seriously don’t know what to do with their time. Instead of focusing on and finding a solution to poverty, unemployment and the recent passion killings they are wasting their energy on replacing the Reiterdenkmal statue with yet another idol of the founding father. Stop wasting time on wanting to change things that don’t need change and start concentrating on real issues at hand!*PLEASE leave the Reiterdenkmal alone. It was moved already. Put the President Nujoma statue on top of the Kalahari Sands Hotel where it can be admired by everybody.*THAT is what reconciliation means. Take history away and put Sam Nujoma everywhere! Are we not in dictatorship? Why was there unrest in North Africa and where are those countries’ heroes?*I AM Oshiwambo-speaking and not German but am not happy with the idea of removing the Reiterdenkmal because it is part and parcel of the rich history of Namibia.*WHOEVER came up with the idea to remove the Reiterdenkmal for good has no idea of the damage it will do to the tourism industry or the history of our country.*REITERDENKMAL should be turned into a memorial for the 1904 war. Remove the horse, put it on the ground and add two statues of heroes from that war next to it on the ground. Then that history is preserved and corrected!*PRESIDENT Pohamba should rather be pained to see people in shacks than the Kurt von Francois statue.*PRESIDENT Pohamba it pains me every time I drive past your mansion knowing the conditions that some of your own people live under. Please remove your blinkers and move on Sir!*TO the German community out there, take the Reiterdenkmal and place it in front of the German church on private property.Law and Order*HE Namibian people must not hunt in Chobe National Park.*DIVUNDU settlement has turned into a place of tsotsis! Three brutal cases in two months. Have manners fellows and grow.*WHY can’t those drivers who are taking photos with their phones while driving be fined? It is also against the law to use a mobile when driving behind road hogs. Think before you click.Education*HOW fair is it to have a language policy that says we teach in the mother tongue if there are only a few materials available to teach in that language? Where does the second language fit in if English is the first language? If the language policy is not addressed properly, we will end up with single language schools.*THE new lower primary curriculum is a ‘copy and paste’ document compiled by people who didn’t consider any of the suggestions made by lower primary teachers who complained in the survey that current curriculum is too packed. Instead, the curriculum developers have added even more to the already busy curriculum and expect teachers to figure out for themselves how they are going to teach everything within 36 weeks, let alone deal with other classroom issues. Why didn’t we employ professional curriculum developers who know what they are doing to develop materials that would work in our Namibian reality? With this new curriculum, we will just end up wasting valuable learners’, teachers’ and parents’ time until the next curriculum review for lower primary in 2021.*I WANT to know from the education director in Oshana Region why only half or a few Grade 10 learners will attend the August vacation classes in regional centres, while in other regions all will attend is this not discrimination?Health Matters*MINISTER Richard Kamwi why are endotracheal tubes, airways and oxygen masks in hospitals used over and over again? Are they not for single use only?Labour Issues*WHY are Onandjokwe hospital employees usually not paid on time? Can anyone help?ACC Alert*IS it only the headman and one of his in-laws at Eenyama village, Eenhana constituency. in Ohangwena Region who benefited from the ministry’s rural electricity programme? Please can the Anti-Corruption Commission investigate?Sporting*NAME change? Please where is Paulus the Hitman Street? Where is Harry the Terminator Street?Service Please*INLAND Revenue Oshakati the way you talk to people is not acceptable at all. And what is wrong that our documents get lost every time? One has to hand in copies to prove that you have submitted documents already. Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila please take this seriously and do something. *MTC please improve your network coverage in Katima Mulilo town. One is only able to get through after five attempts at calling.Responses to recent SMSes*I’M not in the country at the moment but it seems like we have a lot being named after the former president. I know we are honouring him but really there where many other people who were here at home fighting for this country. Instead of printing new money with his face on and spending thousands on renaming stuff after him why don’t we put that money aside to expand one of our state hospitals because the Lord knows we need it. The population is growing and the medical system needs to keep up. Some might say but who will staff such a huge hospital? Well if the environment is right, you will find people will be drawn to work there.