The Shame Of The Struggle Kids

IT is a great shame that so many young people have to go without work, without food, without a good supply even of clean water, without any prospects for the future.

The fact that these people have nowhere to turn and would rather go to a war-torn country, littered with landmines, is a bitter testimony to the rottenness of the state of affairs. In our country some people can devour the whole chicken with impunity and leave the feet and the beak for the others to chew on.This is a sore betrayal of everything that our people have fought, worked and sacrificed for. These poor youth are our countrymen and women and deserve a rightful place in our society, with prospects for happiness in this life. What is going on when we can discard so many youth on the rubbish-heap? Why are the youth being discarded? I am sure that those so discarded will make very good building material for a new society where we work on the basis of people before profit.For the leader of this senile government to march in today’s Anti-Corruption March is like the fox marching for free-range chickens. There is something drastically wrong if we cannot even provide housing and shelter for our own but can waste billions of dollars to subsidise cheap holidays for European tourists on Air Namibia. What can we do to set things right?I was heart-broken to read that the young people whose parents died in exile, many of whom came from Angola as orphans, have been protesting against all odds in Windhoek about their misery and suffering for ten months, without any respite or solution in sight.The youth and pensioners are starving while politicians are growing so fat that they struggle to walk. These young people also have a right to a home, to work and education, to a decent life, not more than any one else, but as much as anyone else. Why is no one coming to their aid? Where is the solidarity? Where is the love, I ask you?I urge all peace-loving people who feel solidarity and compassion to make contact with these youth and tell them that Namibia is also their home, they don’t have to go. We must show them they are not alone. This is our home and there is room for all of us. The children born in and of the struggle have been betrayed so many times. We must come to their defence. They have a right to be here and to live like human beings.The youth concerned must prepare a global petition for the UN to seek an immediate solution.This must be done on the grounds that it was the UN that deemed Swapo to be ‘the sole and authentic leadership of the Namibian people’ in 1976 and helped to bring about the current displacement and suffering of the returnees who have been abandoned by both parties while they claim credit and glory for having brought liberation, while the children of the revolution are without food and water, without homes, without parents and can find no support from the government or their fellow countrymen and women. Anyone who wants support these destitute youth and to sign the petition to the UN proposed here can come to Rise Up Namibia.www.respectnamibia.ning.comJade McCluneRUN Editor