SMSss for Tuesday 18 January 2011

SMS Of The Day
*TO the taxi drivers, stop complaining! Don’t break the law and you will not get fined. Do you think you are above the law?
– Thomas Bonitz

Food for Thought*EDUCATION should start from home, not only the teachers, parents too. If parents cannot read they can approach their neighbour’s grown up kids to help and give something at the end of the month, because there is nothing for ‘mahala’. Those retired senior citizens can also help in order to keep themselves busy. Then by doing so every kid will be educated and all children from Grade l, 2, 3 4 will know how to read and write.Bouquets and Brickbats*IT is encouraging to hear the President (Hifikepunye Pohamba) condemn violence against children and women. However, condemning and/or rhetoric without action has proved to be counter productive. Please Mr Pohamba we urge, beg, we plead with you to introduce legislation and laws that make it harder for rapist and murders to attain easy bail and to increase the amount for bond. We know that the law dictates that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty, so do the laws in other free world democracies which we call the Western World. The difference is that bail to such criminals in those countries is almost non-existent as they cannot pay the amount required. There has to be a better deterrent for those intending to cause such harm to innocent people. If the President really means what he says, I want to challenge him to redress those specific aspects of the law that deal with those specific aspects,violence against women and children.*THE article by The Namibian columnist Alexactus T Kaure ‘When the Light of Justice Goes Off, How Dark is the Darkness’, is a highly inspirational, educational, and informative piece of writing. And if Ex-President Sam Nujoma has to play any prominent role in conflict resolution and peace around the world, as suggested by one SMS message, then Mr Kaure’s vision for a possible political solution on the Caprivi crises should be the starting point because charity begins at home! Thank you, Mr AT Kaure.- Mulife Muchali*THANKS Dr Abraham Iyambo, we are the failures of Oshikango Combined School 2010 and would like to say thank you so much for the second chance that you have given us even though we have a problem with the principal because he doesn’t want us to repeat. Teachers are just telling us about Namcol and no repeating chance for the failures of 2010, please Dr do something at least for us to get our rights about education here at Oshikango.*SMS with respect to a reader’s letter of Prime Minister Nahas Angula in The Namibian, 14. January 2011, page 14. Prime Minister Angula is praising the State President for his fifth place by a survey of the East African Magazine. In reality the fifth place means a country with a low standard of unending corruption, increasing criminality and rape, low school results, insufficient administration … to name only a few. Can one be proud to be the leader of a country of such a low standard, even if there is a little bit of progress? No! It is a disgrace for the leadership of Swapo not to have managed more during 20 years of Independence with millions in financial (assistance) and other development help.- Old political activist.Law and Order*FINES should never be ‘affordable’. Taxi drivers continue to contribute to traffic chaos and road deaths with impunity. Lock up these unpatriotic Namibians so that responsible taxi businesses can flourish!*THANKS to the Government of Namibia for introducing the new rules about the speed limit! In that way you are saving people’s lives.- JNNCity Fathers Please…*CITY of Windhoek please keep the shebeen closing hours to 21h00 so that our children can sleep on time and only open from 15h00 till 20h00 on Sundays. Let’s control shebeens.From the Regions*PLEASE Councillor of Etayi Constituency, provide Iipandayaamiti Combined Schoool and Uukwanatshikare Roman Catholic Church with electricity and an MTC network tower. We have patiently waited for so long. Act now please, we have been left far behind by your Constituency development.Education*THE Ministry of Education is failing to plan – why did they build extra hostels in Oshikoto region secondary schools but up to now they are not ready for use? Our children are suffering being accommodated in cuca shops but these hostels are empty. We need better planning for our learners to get good results.n IS it only 2010 Grade 10 failures who are allowed to repeat or can 2009 Grade 10 failures also repeat?Lost and Found*IILONGA Helvi Bertha your handbag has been found. Please SMS 081-385-8925.Service Please*NAMIBIAN consumers are calling on the Communication Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) board members to expedite the appointment of the CEO for complaints handling as the telecom industry is yet to realise that consumer protection is a serious matter. For example, exhorbitant prepaid charges, failing networks, unethical advertising, separation of wholesale from resale and unbundling (more competition), abuse of dominance, etc are current problems. These negatively affect the credibility of the industry. Both the line Minister and the President are on record expressing consumer/public protection as an equal priority. At the same time the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Law Reform and Development Commission are called upon to expedite the comprehensive consumer protection law and policies as promised by 15 March 2011. Even SMEs will benefit from such a law.Labour Issues*CAN Woermann Brock management do something about their labour hire companies. We are working without our salary! Better to recruit their own casuals. We are tired.- AxuesResponses to recent SMSes*IN response to Food for Thought/ Thursday 13th January: The colours in the NBC logo (the three additive primary colours red, green, blue) represent the RGB colour model which is a technical standard for the television industry all over the world. It’s a coincidence that they are the same as the Swapo colours.- Joost van de PortMedia Arts Technology StudiesCollege of the ArtsFrom NBC*PLEASE NBC it’s better to cancel your SMS line. We are sick of your line’s technical problems and I experienced it for a week now and I lose my money.WE have investigated the matter and we have found no evidence of any technical problems. Maybe you could contact us at 061- 291 3406 or via e-mail at pr@nbc.com.na so that we can determine the exact nature of the problems you experienced.- Albertus Aochamub*NBC, why are you so inconsistent with your newsreaders? Now we see them, now we don’t! Where is Nina Katangana? We need more fresh talent.NEWSREADERS are allocated according to the NBC’s needs and the newsreader’s availability. We also strive to get professional newsreaders on screen and appreciate your comments on that score as well.- Albertus Aochamub*CAN NBC please stick to CNN around lunch time and I kindly ask you to continue with the documentaries you have been showing at 18h00. Just push ‘Business Today’ to the evening as well. As a student I really learned a lot from the documentaries. Please some of us don’t have time for soapies or those boring and pathetically laughable music programmes.THE NBC introduced ‘Business Today’ to ensure that local business-related stories are adequately reflected. One of our objectives is to promote socio-economic development and by focusing on local business issues through our programming, we believe that we contribute to the growth of the Namibian economy. The documentaries that we have been showing you at 18h00 were a replacement for the Parliamentary Report. Parliament was in recess and now the programme can resume. However, we will continue to bring you African documentaries.As regards your comment concerning the music programmes and soapies: The NBC as the national broadcaster has to fulfill the needs of ALL citizens. This means that we have to strike a balance between viewers that prefer news and current affairs programmes and those that prefer entertainment programmes. Due the limited time and funds at our disposal, it is not always possible to please all the people all the time. I can however assure you that we are continuously looking for ways and means to satisfy as many people as possible through our programming.- Albertus Aochumub*HEY NBC, what happened to ‘The Ties That Bind’? Good Series, home-made, telling OUR story. When will we see it again?’PLEASE note that the series ‘The Ties That Bind’ was not produced by the NBC. NBC had merely agreed to broadcast the series (free of charge). For more information on the series and its possible continuation you can contact the production company Optimedia.- Albertus Aochumub*AS an English teacher who tries to improve the correct pronunciation of certain words, I’m seriously perturbed by the way Mr Mulale of NBC-TV news pronounces the word ‘vehicle’. Please take note that the letter ‘h’ is a silent consonant and it’s therefore not pronounced.THANK you for your comment. We continuously strive for excellence and therefore welcome any feedback that will result in better service delivery. Please note however, that the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary lists two possible pronunciations for the word ‘vehicle’, namely ‘vi: kl and ‘vi:hIkl. The second permissible pronunciation is more common in the United States of America.’- Albertus Aochumub