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Home / Political offside, golden award in abstentia or a progressive nation?
Political offside, golden award in abstentia or a progressive nation?
2017-10-13Staff Report 2 Certain sports codes like rugby, soccer or football, as some people refer to them, have rules that are called offside. (It is usually when a player occupies an unlawful position on the field during play.) Interestingly, on the soccer pitch players turn to yell at the referee that the opponents are offside. Sometimes goals are scored when conceding teams deem their opponents to have been offside. Occasionally, players protest the decision of the referee, but I have never seen a referee change his mind on a decision due to the aggression or zeal of any protest or dispute. With politics, the flipside is that we have all the powers to change the outcome of the game, if we position ourselves onside. The recent social media comments regarding the NBC TV licence payment as well as the suggestions that we should not pay our TV licences is perhaps putting us in a politically offside position. We sing “their blood waters our freedom” in honour of our heroes and heroines for the sacrifice of their lives for us to enjoy the freedom we have today. The generation aged under 50 has a gigantic task ahead to champion the second leg of the liberation struggle - economic emancipation. It starts most importantly with the appreciation of the opportunity we have to build a better tomorrow for our Namibia. It starts with us counting our blessings and honouring their sacrifices. Today in Swapo we are tasked with serious challenges and we have all the resources and foresight to overcome it. However, we have to ask a few questions just to double the temperature required in this climate of political maintenance. Are we teaching our children that independence comes with the responsibility of appreciation and counting our blessings? What norms and moral values are we promoting if we are suggesting that we should not pay our TV licences? The responsibility of encouraging youths to appreciate and protect our independence is ours, comrades. If my memory serves me right, avoiding to pay NBC TV licences is just but the beginning of lawlessness if these arguments are left unchallenged in our society. Some people spend more than the annual TV licence fees on alcohol and drugs, cigarettes and even illegal substances. I am not claiming to have the right of telling anyone how and on what to spend their money but if you happily spend money on that and refuse to contribute to our national broadcasting revenue then I am concerned about the moral turpitude in our society. An NBC TV licence costs N$204. The last time this licence fee was increased is most definitely more than 10 years ago. The TV licence revenue will help the NBC to function more efficiently, and mind you we, the community, are the first to point fingers at NBC leadership for poor management when they are unable to provide coverage of certain events. What would the next ridiculous and preposterous suggestion be? Are we going to say that we are not going to pay our motor vehicle licences or we won’t pay our speeding ticket? How about we really support our government and honour our TV licence obligation and we display the pride that our heroes and heroines had when they bravely sacrificed their lives so that we could enjoy the freedom we are enjoying today. We could do that or we will end up playing from an unlawful position and, trust me, when I tell you that a downward spiral is a strategic deficiency and a consistent destruction that starts with a clear end in mind. It rarely fails to achieve its objection of mass destruction of society, except when it is stopped in its tracks in its infancy. There are a few points to consider before you make yourself guilty of the natural process of mass destruction. If you really contribute to the police resources to be diluted for the purpose of collecting TV licences than you will be a member of the political offside group aiming to bequeath the next generation with degenerated values. Whether you end up paying your TV licence or end up in jail it’s still a loss to society. Most insulting you will reward the architect of apartheid with the golden award in abstentia. You will be justifying that the race war was just and none white races are inferior to whites and unable to self-govern. Regardless of the colour of your skin, you will be indirectly promoting racism. We have a duty comrades to popularise and promote the ideals of solidarity, social justice and progress. The presence of destruction can never yield progressive result. Pay your TV licence, say no to destruction and appreciate independence. It really didn’t come on a silver platter. 2017-10-13Staff Report 2
