Success For Many ‘Struggle Kids’

PLEASE allow me this space to comment about the public discourse in recent months, concerning the ‘struggle children’, in particular those who are camping in various places to demand jobs and training from the Government.

I don’t want to talk in detail about whether the ‘struggle kids’ are right or wrong, as much as highlight how the issue is, I feel, being far too narrowly perceived, both in some media and in the informal ‘gossip networks’ we are all part of.First, my concern is that the public discourse seems to perceive ‘struggle kids’ as ‘those who are camping at the protest sites’. I would argue that these are only a section of those who returned from exile as children, and using the term ‘struggle kids’ to refer only to the unemployed campers ignores those ‘exile children’ who have set up successful businesses, those who hold down jobs in Government and private sector, those who are in many cases dominating the worlds of art and entertainment. Even among those protesting, it could be argued that the ones allegedly causing trouble are a minority among largely peaceful protestors. And by lumping us all together with the unemployed protestors, some media ignore the fact that many of us have succeeded, sometimes against great odds.Secondly, the widespread discourse about whether our economy can ‘afford’ to provide jobs to exile kids ignores the fact that what the protestors are demanding – work – is the common human right of us all, clearly laid out in article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Namibia is a signatory. Such talk of ‘affordability’ also masks the millions of dollars invested in foreign countries every year by some financial institutions, not to mention the millions Namibia loses to corruption. Unfortunately, some of the spokespeople for the ‘struggle children’ are partly to blame for these perceptions, arguing as they did for themselves to be treated as a special case, rather than simply saying they were claiming rights that all Namibians are entitled to.Finally, there has been little talk – and even less serious analysis – of what I would call (for lack of better words) the psychological and sociological causes of the protests and even the alleged violence. After all, when a person has been unemployed for 19 years, and sees tens of millions of dollars frittered away in corrupt investment schemes – money that could have fed families for decades – do you not think this person will be angry? And don’t angry people often lose their cool, make emotional statements, and even commit crimes, in an attempt to satisfy their rage? Why, then is hardly anyone writing about these matters when discussing the protests? As far as solutions go, it is my opinion (as, some would argue, a ‘struggle child’ myself) that we, as a nation, urgently need to get together to find solutions to the youth unemployment problem as a whole. This would not just be for those of the struggle kids who are hungry and desperate, but for all unemployed Namibians. However, to do this we will seriously have to challenge our assumptions and truly ‘think out of the box’.Hugh EllisVia e-mailNote: The views expressed are the author’s own. – Ed