The Fake-It Society

SILLY season again. The mewling and puking of the multilateral motor mouths from G20, the UN General Assembly and environmental colossi will contaminate our radar with grandiose declarations of love for the planet, binding intent on common strategies and globalised regulation all encapsulated in vast meaningless tomes of empty words.

The processes based on a foundation of shifting sands – half truths, double meanings and coded language adding up to nothing. They will ponder the next illusory phase to deceive their people on leaving their US$5000 a night hotels. Underneath the façade of declared ‘brilliant success’ the fakers will carry on lying and cheating.Such manicured visions of reality delude the majority who have little option but to keep ‘their noses to the grindstone’ and ‘their shoulder to the wheel’ (sounds painful!), to pay their governments! Constant fabrications of the truth by the political and financial worlds have already been factored into their reality as ‘norms of society’. Fake qualifications, curriculum vitae and references, let alone exam cheating have achieved respectability through such leadership.Now the sporting world has corrupted the word ‘sport’ which used to be about character building, teaching tolerance and fairness, hard work and dedication. Formula 1 motor racing now fakes crashes, Rugby fakes ‘blood injuries’ and sports leaders in South Africa lie about the athlete Semenya with no regard to her, just treating her as a commodity but demonstrating how the echelons of power act in total disregard to humanity to further their financial and political ambitions; they even create a racial incident, based on the lie! Fakers impinge everywhere and authority protects the obviously guilty.This ‘faking culture’ is further supported by the trend to remove individuals from personal responsibility through the pretence of ‘health and safety’ and the insurance trap. Authority expands its power by increasing state intervention in personal lives with the aim to increase dependency upon the state – the new form of slavery. Deviate from the ordained path at your own peril; such protection will be removed. Intimidation is now institutionalised perhaps?This created lack of knowledge, enquiry and restricted skills diverts man’s thoughts towards what he is told to believe; the creation of the unthinking and ignorant society unable to challenge the obviously fake and untrue. The downward path to the cesspit of intellectual cowardice, ever fluid principle and insincerity; the world of charlatans and fraud, often within a legal framework that lack ethical and moral conviction.Now Namibia enters the crucial test of its democracy having had years of growth to hide blatant inefficiency and political cover ups in a rather cushioned developmental path. Now, thanks to world recession, hard decisions are going to have to be made. Budget time approaches and serious cuts and policy priority changes are necessary. What was N$24 billion has become N$16 billion. How will our administration and political gurus handle this? Borrow more and condemn youth to penury? Do nothing and slide into bankruptcy? Or be brave and make the adjustments necessary?The latter correct course is where Namibia should go but …. The beauty of financial and political crises is that the worms feeding on their fake existence will be forced from their holes and exposed. What do we do? The ‘Grobler NWR expos钝 provides (so-far) uncontested evidence of financial manipulation that seems to benefit part of society and deprive another, maybe legally but certainly not in an ethical and moral terms. Will our authorities challenge this or hide behind silence and personal attack? A good test case to show up the fakers. What society do we want?csmith@mweb.com.na