Wezi Tjaronda Goodbye 2005, a good year and a year of abundance I thought you were, until two minor children early in the year were raped and brutally killed. Enough of demonstrations I have seen expressing anguish over the brutality with which our menfolk could squeeze life out of small children. Fear, 2005, you have instilled in small children, who all along have learnt to trust in people of both sexes who are a bit older than they are. Isn’t this Africa after all, where your neighbour’s child is just like your own? Goodbye 2005, for just as if my mind had not been exposed to enough horror, a young woman was then inhumanly murdered. As if committed by some beast, her head was chopped off. This time men and women and a lot more people joined hands and yet demonstrated, again sending a message that this could not go on. Whatever happened to compassion, that people just choose to prey on innocent and unsuspecting lives? Goodbye 2005, for a year of corrupt and fraudulent practices you have been. With the millions of money that seem to have disappeared into thin air, at least this year, I now believe it when they say Namibia is endowed with riches. Go in peace 2005, because if this is the way to go, then the over 30 percent of people that are not employed will remain jobless; the elderly who badly need an increase in their monthly pensions will not see the increase, and the list is long. Goodbye 2005, for you have been a year of gloom for Namibia’s children. As they have found out, Namibia’s most vulnerable children are excluded and are invisible. And unless their plight is addressed, they will become more vulnerable while their numbers will increase to 250 000 in 2021. As if this is not enough, the child mortality rate, which is now decreasing, may increase by 60 percent – higher than it would have been without HIV/AIDS in 2021. Enough of this gloom, we welcome you, 2006. Hello 2006, for again hopes are high you will be a prosperous year in all aspects, where people will: 1. Not ditch their resolutions after a few weeks. 2. Respect the rights of others especially children and women by letting them enjoy their Godly right to life. 3. Will work hard for their earnings and not devise schemes to siphon money from others or organisations, which want so much to invest and reap some handsome profits. After all, humble beginnings also count. 4. Remember that it is just 24 years to Vision 2030, “Where the Namibian people as well developed, prosperous, healthy and confident in an atmosphere of interpersonal harmony, peace and political stability, Namibia is developed to be reckoned with as a high achiever in the comity of nations.” Eewa!