SMSes for Wednesday 25 April 2012

SMS Of The Day
*IT is tremendously encouraging to see the positive turnaround in athletics in Namibia. Congratulations to Globine Mayova, Tjipekapora Herunga and Hitjivirue Kaanjuka on your good results. To Frank Fredericks and Agnes Samaria one can only say one thing: Thank you!

Food for Thought*SOME advice to the Ministry of Education. Even though we are receiving more money, as long as we turn a blind eye to discipline in teachers and learners the results will never improve. Learners are very disappointing. Some of us teachers work harder than those in so-called performing schools, but indiscipline is the obstacle. This is a fact after vast experience. – OshakatiBouquets and Brickbats*A BIG thumbs up to the government for dealing with the education system. Whoever came up with this has a vision and is a genius. Never mind the ‘billions’ it may cost. Next deal with the alcoholism that is keeping the poor slaves to poverty and purposeless lives. – Stan Poet*SKILLS training is the solution, not legalising prostitution!
*PLEASE reporters, columnists and editors of The Namibian learn the difference between the words ‘prize’ and ‘price’ and use them appropriately. You are perpetuating a common mistake repeatedly made by professionals, educators, journalists and students in our country. Get it right!Note: We do our best. A prize is what you win in a competition and a price is what you pay for something you buy.- News Desk *NOW the Directorate of Forestry has investigated itself and the alleged bribe was a ‘misunderstanding’, a ‘gift’ from the company that illegally logged 200 trees. Well done Director Hailwa. The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry is now topping the list of unclear deals and not upholding its mandate.*ILLEGAL logging in the north. The people guilty of this crime towards the environment must note that greediness for a few bucks in the pockets to satisfy the ‘now’ will rob your children of a future. Thank you The Namibian for bringing issues like these to light.*ILLEGAL logging ‘tolerable’. Surely any sane person would understand that anything illegal is intolerable.Running the Show*MINISTER Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah please upgrade the Etosha Game Park fence to what it was in the colonial era. Elephants are out destroying our property.*SUDANESE MiGs bombing South Sudan! What is the actual strength of our country and the ones defending us? Sudan can afford to have Russian MiG 29 fighters. Where exactly is the wealth of our country? Not to mention a few of us having dreams of serving in the airforce.Education*UNAM you only have about 80 computers or less available for students. To top it all students get up to three hours to use a computer. The problem is a person has to stand for a very long time without having access or even getting to use it the whole day since one has to go to class. Suggestion: ban access to the Facebook site so that those who don’t have anything else to do won’t come and those of us who want to do school work can have access. Please!- Tshekupe Amulungu*THE Polytechnic of Namibia is forcing students to do Introduction to Maths or Basic Maths even if you don’t have a mathematics background. Why is mathematics not an optional subject for those who understand it? Some people were not allowed to graduate only because of mathematics being an outstanding subject after failing it four to five times. Others gave up. Not everybody is good at mathematics and some did not do it in Grade 11 and 12 because it was an optional or they don’t understand it. It is not fair at all.*MINISTRY of Education we first years need to know when the second list for study loans is being released?Health Matters*THANK you The Namibian for allowing Namibians to have their say. On the issue of Dr Itula having his application to practise in Namibia turned down by the Dental Council: I smell a rat. The man studied in the United Kingdom and is practising there: what in his qualifications are not ‘standard’? Why are people like Dr Kamwi not intervening as Dr Itula is a child of Namibia? Labour Issues*MINISTER of Works and Transport Nghimtina I just want to enquire about the aviation bursaries that closed on February 17, 2012. It’s been two months since the closing date and I’m sure it’s not just me waiting for feedback from your ministry. *I WORK as a security guard and am concerned as the companies say they do not want to upgrade our salaries. I want to ask why the government or the Ministry of Labour cannot order them to do it. Those who do not do so must stop operating in this republic of ours. We are tired. Please help us.*TO the Ministry of Lands: We farm caretakers have been promised that we are going to be paid for our leave days. How long must we wait?- Concerned farm caretaker!Law and Order*SHOP owners, if you don’t protect your female customers against intimidation and harassment by loiterers in front of your doors, you’re going to lose them. Somehow these loiterers are always male and they target female shoppers, often while the shop’s security guards look on and do nothing. Pick n Pay Eros, you’ve lost at least two regular customers in the last month who I know of. There are safer places to get our daily bread and milk. Suggestions Box*DEAR Editor just a suggestion. Why don’t you start a column that goes back tracking our politicians and informing us about what they’re doing these days. For example what happened to Andreas Guibeb? Where is Dr Frieda-Nela Williams? How is Oom Dirk Mudge doing? Is Daniel Luiperdt still alive? What happened to DTA’s Boonzaaier? This could be interesting!*THE Namibian please try to bring back the ‘Job Finder’ page in your newspaper. You had it in recent years and most of your readers need it.Sporting*WE Oshana Region girls want to show our talent but have no soccer team for girls. Please help, we want to make Oshana proud.- Princess LAOIn and From the Regions*ONGWEDIVA Town Council how many years should we complain? We need street names! It is difficult to direct people in Ongwediva. If it has proven to be difficult to come up with names, why don’t you use numbers like those used in Tsumeb and Walvis Bay for years?Please Help*MY wife and I want to start with adoption, but living within the Karas Region it is difficult to for the social workers to come to Oranjemund. I have been waiting for four months now and still no one came to even start the process. There is such a delay, not only are there a lot of cases in Oranjemund, but also some urgent cases. Could the Ministry please see to it that every town has their own social worker or two? NBC*WE have been waiting patiently for many years. TV reception in Eenhana is still very poor. Please do something! The Director General of NBC should also travel to the Ohangwena Region and familiarise himself with the TV reception situation. Eenhana, as the regional capital, has attracted a lot of investors but the poor reception is defeating the efforts of the town councilLost and Found*MY name is Lubinda Memory Mwaka. I lost my black file in a taxi which has all my important documents in it. If found please contact me on 081-622-6906.*I VIKTORIA N Nghifilenya lost my wallet with all my documents. If found please call 081-414-3677/081-289-1162/081-694-9195.Service Please*MTC please do something at Okeeholongo and Olumpelengwa in Okahao Constituency. You could lose customers.*I SAW MTC advertising in The Namibian of Monday for the Supply and Installation of Base Transreceivers. We hope Onakalunga in Omundaungilo Constituency, Ohangwena Region will be remembered this time. The network is really bad and we have been raising this issue for too long.*PLEASE MTC negotiate a fair and reasonable 3G roaming rate with the South African cell companies. Perhaps we should all send complaints to the SA consumer council as we are being ripped off with roaming charges!Responses to recent SMSes*WHERE does the spitting come from? Of course our soccer and rugby players, our heroes. Even the coaches are spitting all over. And then the tattoos all over their bodies. Fifa and the Namibia Rugby Union should do something about this. – Clement*ALCOHOL abuse? Yes who would stop or not start drinking if so much money is pumped into advertising? The more I drink the more I stand a chance of winning thousands of dollars or state-of-the-art Range Rovers. These kinds of promotions should be prohibited. Is alcohol killing more people than HIV-AIDS these days? Looking at the violence in our country, the rate is alarming. Namibians will we ever unite with this type of priorities?*WILL anyone with information about the Ministry of Works vehicle incident at Karasburg over the weekend please contact Melvin Basson at the Ministry of Works.