As an African country, Namibia still shows political signs not so different from the perspectives of a too obvious African political syndrome.
You don’t have to be an economist or a political scientist to notice these very vivid signs. We are not unique and unusual. We ought to be doing some things differently.
The starvation is there, very much African in context. The slow-paced development is still there. There is no business unusual.
A well-liberated Namibia still has a multiplicity of challenges, ranging from hunger, poverty, disease, fear, corruption in government structures, poor public healthcare services, low quality education, lack of an enlightened citizenry, dependent economy, to mention but a few.
As Namibians we ought to be honest in our assessment of our country. We need to agree on this subject matter without calling one another names. We must not be too angry! We can no longer be led by anger. An angry people are not a good people. Anger can only lead to misunderstanding and strife… and strife leads to casualties.
The first point in our assessment of (a) how far we have come, (b) how far we should have gone, and (c) what we should have done, is an understanding that these problems are more political than economic. It is for not any economic reason, for example, that our education is of low quality.
These problems are no longer a result of apartheid. They may be a result of not planning well enough politically. But we are not quite sure yet. We will be naive in our thinking to suggest that the great majority of the populace is still mired in poverty today, because of apartheid.
It is time we make this acknowledgement if we are to make life better for all. Let us remind ourselves with some serious lessons. Some of the most serious challenges we have in Namibia are due to our unpreparedness and lack of anticipation of our vision in this rapidly changing world.
These problems are very common in Africa. We have not dreamed big enough. We are caught still thinking about what to dream about.
Daniel Musore