THE “opinion poll” which appeared in Republikein on Tuesday, 21 October 2008 refers.
Whilst wholeheartedly opposed to Windhoek’s electricity supply being taken over by a regional electricity distributor, I am not prepared to voice my opposition by endorsing this “poll”, which, as published, is riddled with grammatical errors as well as assuming that the reader’s intelligence quotient is sub-normal, all of which I take exception to. Firstly, any student of the English language will be able to point out the errors in the text, and it is inexcusable that it was submitted for publication in this poor format (or for that matter, even published) – presumably it was dreamed up in German and translated straight into English (“Kauderwelsch” is an appropriate description for the result) without any checking or proof-reading having taken place.I will not debase myself by pointing out the errors one by one – sit down, read it again and be ashamed.Secondly, the “poll”, in the third paragraph, states : “Therefore the “WRA” requires all residents …” etc.Who is the “WRA” to require, prescribe or dictate how any individual resident should react to the establishment of a RED for Windhoek? This smacks of an attempt to brainwash the potential respondent by slyly forcing pre-conceived opinions on him/her, and can possibly even legally prejudice the ‘poll’ outcome.Finally, no contact details for the association have been provided – this omission, in addition to the issues mentioned above, places the authenticity and sincerity of the so-called ratepayers’ association under deep suspicion.WRA? Not for me, thank you.Fritz Mecker WindhoekFirstly, any student of the English language will be able to point out the errors in the text, and it is inexcusable that it was submitted for publication in this poor format (or for that matter, even published) – presumably it was dreamed up in German and translated straight into English (“Kauderwelsch” is an appropriate description for the result) without any checking or proof-reading having taken place.I will not debase myself by pointing out the errors one by one – sit down, read it again and be ashamed.Secondly, the “poll”, in the third paragraph, states : “Therefore the “WRA” requires all residents …” etc.Who is the “WRA” to require, prescribe or dictate how any individual resident should react to the establishment of a RED for Windhoek? This smacks of an attempt to brainwash the potential respondent by slyly forcing pre-conceived opinions on him/her, and can possibly even legally prejudice the ‘poll’ outcome.Finally, no contact details for the association have been provided – this omission, in addition to the issues mentioned above, places the authenticity and sincerity of the so-called ratepayers’ association under deep suspicion.WRA? Not for me, thank you.Fritz Mecker Windhoek
